


Woman of the Watch (or: Alethia didnt think this would happen in her wildest dreams)

by procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: ANGST!!!, And ballet, Angst, Anxiety, Attempt at Humor, BAMF Arya Stark, BAMF Sansa Stark, BAMF Women, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Sansa Stark, Bisexuality, Crack Treated Seriously, Daddy Issues, Depression, Eventual Happy Ending, Everyone Has Issues, F/F, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen Z Slang, German OC living in America, Heartbreak, Homophobia, I have too many bad ideas, I'm Bad At Tagging, Joffrey Baratheon is a Little Shit, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Kinda, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Like season 6, Mental Health Issues, Mommy Issues, Mutual Pining, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, OC is a Nerd, OC is a TCK, OC is a good liar, OC is a huge bottom and it shows, OC is bilingual, OC is bisexual, OC is the same age as Jon Snow, OC likes reading, Past Relationship(s), Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader-Insert, Sarcasm, Self-Discovery, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Sexism, Slow Burn, Stereotypes, The Night's Watch (ASoIaF), Underage Drinking, also kinda - Freeform, and swimming, and the writing gets so much better, and wild dreams, badly translated german sayings, chapters get longer, fuck it, i think i´ll write several of these if someone likes it, modern girl in westeros, most relationships come up later, robert baratheon is a huge asshole to some people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:22:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28149048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics/pseuds/procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics
Summary: When Alethia Stahl is thrown into the world of Game of Thrones, she´s super excited to be part of the fictional world she adores so much. That is, until she realizes how shitty medieval times actually are. Nonetheless, she makes her way through Westeros and even teaches Jon some Gen Z slang on the way.Alternate title: a gen z teen finds it in themselves to keep on going even without modern toilets bc of spite.or: Alethia is uncomfortable with talking to people at first but boy is she a feminist.
Relationships: Arya Stark & Original Character(s), Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Ashara Dayne/Ned Stark, Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark, Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth, Jon Snow & Arya Stark, Jon Snow/Original Character(s), Jon Snow/Original Female Character(s), Jon Snow/Ygritte, Sansa Stark/Original Female Character(s), Theon Greyjoy/Sansa Stark
Comments: 51
Kudos: 80





	1. Good thing I´m here because this is the one exam I didn´t study for

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Jon Snow X Reader – Woman of the Watch](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14156238) by [writeyouin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeyouin/pseuds/writeyouin). 



> First of all, I´m pretty sure that no one will read this, but I´m telling you, I think talking to Alliser Thorne with Gen Z slang would be absolutely hilarious. Also, Alethia is going to have no problem with shouting at people for being mysoginistic or racist, but she won´t eat rabbit stew :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia talks to Morgan and makes her way to the exam hall

"Hey Alethia wait for me!" Alethia turned around to see her girlfriend Morgan walking up to her, as if she didn´t have her chemistry exam in five minutes.  
"How was English?" Alethia asked.  
"Ok. How was German? I heard you had to analyse some poem." Morgan looked at her. Alethia was about to respond, but gay panic overcame her, as per usual. Even though she and Morgan had been dating for three months now, Alethia still tended to be a nervous wreck around her way too pretty girlfriend.  
"It was alright, but I didn´t study for music." Alethia replied.  
Morgan looked up at her and smirked. "It´s not like you need it. Besides, we used the time you would´ve wasted with studying quite nicely don´t you think? We´re going to be done with our exams today. How about we spend the afternoon in Central Park?"   
"Like a date?" Alethia was shooketh.  
"No, I personally think its a good day to sell crack." Morgan said sarcastically amd looked out of a window as if checking the weather. "Of course it´s a date. Meet me at the school entrance. Good Luck with Music." with that, Morgan turned around and walked down the hallway, leaving Alethia to sigh like some 10-year-old that just discovered "hot" tiktok povs that are full of romantisized bullshit.  
To Alethia (and also everyone else with common sense) Morgan was absolutely beautiful. She had olive skin and brown eyes and was about one and a half heads shorter than Alethia, which didn´t stop her from being the most top person to ever exist. In looks and personality, she was Alethias opposite. She was curvy and and confident and had amazing parents. Alethia on the other hand, was tall, skinny and blonde. She was very shy and not very outgoing and tended to prefer cats to humans. Being tall was amazing though because Alethia could basically give all her sweaters to Morgan.  
The bell brought Alethia back into reality and she made her way to her music exam. She had an extremely bad feeling about music, not having studied at all. "Get it together Alethia, there´s no point of being nervous now." she told herself and sat down at her assigned seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized how badly written this is... IT WILL GET BETTER HANG ON PLEASE


	2. I´m not a witch but it would be pretty cool ngl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We´re getting there. Bare with me, I know the first chapter was terrible but what can you do.  
> I think I spider=I think I´m going crazy. (It´s literally translated)  
> Also, Alethia speaks german (it's in the **) at first because she´s going to a german school, where everyone would speak german of course.

With a sigh, Alethia took her seat in the music room. She really didn´t have a clue about anything, so she was hoping that it would be about ballet. Ballet was Alethia´s second passion, only being topped by reading. Tonight would be one of her last rehearsals before the performance of "Aurora", so she had brought her ballet things with her.

When everyone in her class had settled down, the teacher began handing out the exam.

Alethia turned her paper around and stared at it for a bit. She had no clue what she was going to do because this didn´t make any sense to her. Checking all the questions, she finally found one she could remember learning about for last years exams and started working on it. Then she decided to look at the second paper. 

Alethia could´ve (metaphorically) kissed her teacher then and there. She looked up at Mrs. Jung, who smiled back at her knowingly. The task was simple enough. Write a summary of one of the following ballets which we learned about. The Choices were Gabrielle, Aurora and Swan Lake. Excited, Alethia started writing her summary. She was so invested in finishing the task that her sudden change in scenery didn´t occur to her yet.

After a moment, Alethia looked up to gather her thoughts, when she noticed that complete strangers were staring at her. Well, they weren´t exactly strangers, it was just that normally, they were fictional.

*Shouldn´t you be wearing a mask?* Alethia asked, pointing to the one she was wearing herself. Everyone just kept staring at her. *Do you speak german?* she asked the person standing next to her, a girl in some medieval dress. "Apparently not" Alethia thought to herself.

So she tried English this time. "Do you speak English?" she asked the girl, which was still staring at her with wide eyes. Still, no response. So in her best german mock-accent she said to herself "I think I spider."

Suddenly, the man that looked like Ned Stark got up and strode towards her, a very real looking greatsword in hand. "What do you want from my people, witch?" he asked her and pointed his sword at her.

"Let´s clear things up here, okay?" Alethia replied. "First of all, I´m not a witch, even though that would be pretty cool, not gonna lie. Second of all, that sword looks really sharp and I´m trying to concentrate here." At that, Alethia pointed at her exam. "And last, but certainly not fucking least, put on a goddamn mask you Ned Stark Wannabe. I get that you´re some kind of LARPer but that doesn´t change the fact that we´re in the middle of a fucking pandemic."

The man stared. It looked like he was about to hit her. "You dare to speak to me like that? And who taught you such foul speech? It is unfit for a girl your age, even if she is lowborn."

Alethia was fuming. It didn´t happen often that she got this vocal with someone, but this guy was really not acting accordingly. "Look, I don´t know where in New York I am right now, but apart from the fact that you´re not wearing a mask and that you are some medieval classist, apparently, you´re threatening me with a big-ass sword. I get it, you Americans have this right to bear arms thing, but I´m still going to call the cops on you."

Somewhere in front of her, someone whispered very loudly "She´s a madwoman."

"The thing is, I don´t know why I am at this highly illegal renaissance fair right now, but it would be really helpful if someone here would break character and tell me where I am. And also, I am most certainly not mad, I just saw a psychologist last week." She glared in the direction where the comment had come from. When no one said anything, Alethia suddenly became very conscious of the fact that she hadn´t given anyone the chance to speak after her little speech.

Another man came towards her desk. He was old and wore something that looked like a roman toga. "Though I cannot believe your statement about not being a witch, I may help you with your current location, so you can return to this `New York´ you speak of. I do not know what these strange things you speak of are and I have never heard of the words LARP or pandemic before, but I do know that we are in Winterfell and-"

Alethia laughed. "Winterfell? That´s a great joke, really funny. I mean you all look the part. You look like Maester Luwin and your bro there is basically a doppelgänger to Eddard Stark and we´ve got all the Starks and even Theon all lined up over there. How cute. Still in denial about Season 8?"

Again, Theon-Wannabe said "She´s mad and a witch too."

Alethia and the reincarnation of Eddard Stark both chose to ignore him. But while Alethia tried to get back to her exam, Ned Stark pointed his sword at her throat. "Who are you and how do you know our names." he demanded.

Alethia sighed and looked at him. She decided that this was either a fever dream or she had accidentally shifted realities, but she did not want to risk it. So, in her best medieval impression she said "I am Alethia of the great house Stahl." being highborn certainly wouldn´t hurt, Alethia thought. On an afterthought she added "And I would like to speak to you in private... my Lord."

"Why would I risk my life to speak to some witch that would try to kill me." he asked, this time much calmer.

"Because the lord of Winterfell shouldn´t be afraid to face a woman." Alethia replied. At least there was a chance that something good would come out of this sexist society, because some great lord certainly couldn´t afford to be "unmanly".

"Very well then. Guards, escort Lady Alethia Stahl to my office."

And so, Alethia picked up her bag and flanked by two guards, made her way out of the Great Hall of Winterfell, followed by many whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN She´s in Winterfell... Kudos and Feedback would be appreciated, tell me how i can improve my writing ;)


	3. With great power comes great responsibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia and Ned find a place for Alethia in Winterfell. Theon is an asshole but what´s new. TW: attempted rape/sexual assault

Alethia was following the guards to Lord Stark’s office. They didn't bother talking to her and Alethia was immensely grateful for that. She was still recovering from the situation in the Great Hall and besides, she needed time to think. Right now, she didn't know whether the books or the show were canon. She had watched and read both, but until now, the books didn't confirm that Jon was a Targaryen. She would’ve tried to use that with Ned Stark, but it could go terribly wrong if she wasn't right.

There were so many other questions she had to ask herself as well. Would the future that was portrayed in the books and the show even take place, now that she was here. What was the best way she could possibly survive, if she wasn't able to get home? Should she go to King’s Landing with Lord Stark or should she try and stop him from going at all? Should she try to get to Daenerys or should she try to stop the Lannisters from killing Robert? Should she help Robb and stop him from manifesting his death or should she maybe just make a run for it and leave for one of the Free Cities? She could feel her head beginning to spin, when the guards pushed her into a room. 

Alethia decided to awkwardly stand in a corner, since that’s what they always seemed to do until they were offered a seat by their "superiors". Finally, Ned Stark walked in and sat down behind the massive desk. He pointed to the seat on the other side of his desk. Alethia took that as her queue to sit down.

With what Alethia would interpret as curiosity, Ned Stark stared at her. At last, he began to speak. "So you claim you are not a witch, but that you being here is an accident?"

"Yes."

"Yes, my Lord." Eddard corrected.

Alethia sighed. She had never understood why Lords were so stuck up about their Lordliness. Everyone knew that they were Lords, but they didn't have to rub into their faces all the time.

"And why should I believe you?" Ned Stark asked. "You could be lying, waiting to kill me."

By now, Alethia was panicking. She knew she should keep eye contact, but it was still difficult for her. Not keeping eye contact would make it look like she was lying though. She had no clue what to say, so she just started talking. "Don't you think that, as a witch, I would’ve been more prepared? I could’ve probably killed you and your family three times over if that was my goal as a witch, but I didn't.". Alethia could tell that Ned Stark was neither buying it, nor looking any friendlier, so she kept talking before he could try to burn her or whatever it was they did with witches here.

"You know, you really don't have any reason to trust me, my Lord." she went on. Not good, not good at all. Ned had his hand on the hilt of a dagger and was tensing up. She quickly added "but I promise, I'm not lying. I swear it, by the old gods and the new and whatever supernatural power brought me here. Besides, I can help you."

"How could you possibly help me?" Ned Stark asked, not unkindly.

Alethia sighed. She was a good liar, but she knew that here, the truth would work better. She really didn't want to be associated with any sort of magic right now. "Lord Stark, I know that what you are about to hear may be hard to comprehend, but it is the truth. It's the reason why I knew your name, as well as that of Maester Luwin and many other people in Westeros. Where I'm from, Westeros is a story. And I can help you, because I know the future of Westeros, or more precisely, the future that will take place if I don't interfere."

Ned Stark stared. "So what is this future you are talking about, Lady Stahl?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't take place. But in the books, you are a good man, Lord Stark. What will happen to you and your family is not a fate anyone should deserve, which is why I will try to help you, but you must take my advice, and you must let me live." Alethia said ominously.

"Very well, that sounds about fair. But you must prove yourself, and you will have to make yourself useful in some way." Ned replied.

Alethia thought for a bit. "I can understand your concerns my Lord. How about this, I make myself useful by tutoring Arya. I know she has trouble with the septa. I might be able to instill some knowledge in her, I am sure that she can be very intelligent if she wants." Alethia knew that Arya was Ned’s favorite. "As for proving myself, there will be a deserter from the Night’s Watch soon. He will be paralyzed with fear, because he saw something you should pray you will never encounter. And very soon, your sigil will be much more present in your everyday life than you'd expect right now."

"Good. I think Arya is in dire need of a good tutor. As for your knowledge of the future, we will see. You may take your leave."

"Thank you my Lord." Alethia was trying to get away as soon as possible.

"One more thing, Lady Stahl." Ned said when she had almost reached the door. "You claim you are from a great house. I will make sure you will be treated accordingly, but first I would like to know, what are the words of your house?"

Alethia paused. She should’ve known that this question would come, but yet she wasn't prepared. Then, she remembered watching Spider-Man with Morgan. "With great power comes great responsibility." she replied, and left the office.

<<<<>>>>

After Alethia had been shown to her room and been given "more proper clothes" she started to wander around the castle, exploring. Most people had been avoiding her scurrying off as soon as she came into sight, but Alethia didn't mind. She didn't want to talk to anyone anyways. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her.

"Are you lost, my Lady." Alethia knew that Theon was smirking as soon as she heard that voice that was dripping with arrogance. She almost felt bad for him, knowing what ill fortune was going to befall him, until he opened his mouth again. "You know I've never fucked a mad woman before." he said.

"It can stay that way." Alethia replied.

"But I don't want it to." Theon said, smirking in a very rapey way. Alethia could feel his hot breath on her neck. Suddenly, Theon pushed her against the wall. Alethia struggled against him, but he was four years older and much taller. When he turned her to face him, she tried to slap him, but he held down her hands. So instead, she opted for kneeing him in the groin. Instantly, Theon let go of her. "You crazy bitch." he snarled. 

He was about to lunge at her, when Jon appeared at the end of the hallway. "Let go of her Theon." he said coolly. "You can't tell me what to do, bastard." Theon said. "No, I can't." Jon replied, "but my father can."

Reluctantly, Theon let go of Alethia. "I didn't need your help you know." she snarled in Jon's direction. "You're welcome." Jon said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got deleted twice!!! The chapters are getting longer and longer but who cares. Alethia might get close to an anxiety attack, it happens to me a lot in loud places (like a restaurant or in this case the Great Hall)


	4. So yeah I know the world I´m from

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia eats dinner with the Starks and Theon and gets to know Jon better. possible TW: Overstimulation

After her run-in with Theon, Alethia wasn´t in the mood for any exploring anymore, so she went back to the chamber that had been assigned to her. It was getting dark and she had a feeling that there would be dinner soon. 

As soon as Alethia had settled in in her chamber she regretted not occupying herself, as her mind began to wander again. She couldn´t help it, but she kept wondering if she would stay here forever or if this was just a fever dream. She could feel her anxiety-levels rising, but thankfully, there was a knock on the door to interrupt her train of thoughts. Alethia sighed and opened the door.

She didn´t know who she had expected, but it certainly hadn´t been Robb Stark. "I´m to escort you to the Great Hall Lady Stahl." he said, not looking very enthusiastic about the prospect of having to spend time with someone who was possibly mad. 

Alethia didn´t exactly know what was expected of her. "Thank you." she said and walked out of her room, leaving Robb behind. She knew the way to the Great Hall after all. "Aren´t you going to take my arm?" Robb seemed confused by her behaviour. "Umm okay." Alethia wasn´t very comfortable with touching a stranger but seeing that she didn´t really have a choice she linked her arm with his.

When Robb and Alethia arrived at the high table, he showed her her seat. As quickly as humanly possible, Alethia yanked her arm from Robb´s and sat down.

It was obvious that no one at the table wanted to talk to her, except for Arya, who was basically bouncing with curiosity. Alethia suspected that she was probably seated here because she was supposedly highborn. When the food arrived, Alethia watched how everyone else was eating. She had lived in many different countries after all and didn´t want to offend the Starks even more, if that was even possible. The show hadn´t exactly showcased the manners that were expected from ladies in Westeros.

"Is something wrong with the food my Lady?" Catelyn Stark asked. Aside from the fact that Alethia had been a vegetarian for quite a time now and her certainty that the standards of hygiene for food preparation in times like this were terrible, nothing was wrong for Alethia. She knew that the truth would probably confuse Catelyn even more, knowing that she had never left Westeros, but it was something that could lead to a conversation. Alethia hated conversations but she didn´t want to be stared at like an animal in the zoo.

"I didn´t want to offend anyone. After all, we might have a very different set of manners." said Alethia

"It can´t be that different. How else would you eat?" asked Catelyn

"Well, where I´m from, some countries have completely different cultures than others. The forks you are using for example, I´ve never used one of them."

"You sound like you have traveled a lot and know about the cultures of a lot of different peoples." Catelyn replied

"I guess you could say that. It´s not like I´ve visited that many countries, but yeah I´ve probably seen quite a bit for my age."

"Really, where have you been?" Arya asked a bit loudly. Alethia knew that she loved stories and so did Bran. She smiled to herself. Arya would have loved the life she had lived so far. "Don´t interrupt Arya, that´s rude." Sansa said. Arya looked a bit downcast.

"The names of the countries I´ve been to probably won´t mean anything to you, but I´ll do my best to describe them. I was born in Buenos Aires in Argentinia. The people there are very lively and the beaches are absolutely gorgeous. When I was two, my parents and I moved to Taipeh. It´s the capital of Taiwan and it´s basically on the other side of the earth. We lived there for about one and a half years and then we moved back to the country my parents are from, Germany. We lived in a city called Frankfurt until I was five. By then, my parents got a divorce. I stayed with my mom and we moved to London. There, my mom met my stepdad and they married. After two years we moved to China and then after two years again we moved to India. I was nine by that time. India is great. I think you could compare the food and the architecture to that of Dorne. When I was ten we moved to Singapore." Alethia paused

"I love Singapore. It´s not a very big country, but it´s basically a country from the future. Everything is very modern. My half-brother Eric was born in Singapore. Unlike me, he got to have a normal name. We lived in Singapore for two years and then we moved to New York. New York is in America and though I don´t really agree with a lot of american concepts, living in America meant I got to train more for my passions. I´m probably going to study in the Juilliard. It´s a school of performing arts. If that doesn´t work out I would like to go to Harvard to study law."

Now, everyone was staring at Alethia. Great, she thought, I got way too into it. Then they all started asking questions. 

"What languages do you speak?" Was your family exiled?" "What´s a divorce?" "Why did you move around that much?" "What´s a school?"

"One at a time please." Alethia interrupted. She couldn´t take all the talking. It was too stuffy and the noises were to loud anyways and it was all too much.

"Was your family exiled? Why did highborns have to move around like some circustroupe?" Eddard asked.

"The concept of being highborn doesn´t really work the way it does where I´m from than how it works here." Alethia replied. "My mother was a diplomat for Germany, so we had to move around a lot."

"How many languages do you speak?" Arya asked. Catelyn looked so dissapointed that even Akethia could tell Arya shouldn´t have spoken. Nonetheless, she answered.

"Let´s see. German is my mothertongue but I also speak english like a mothertongue. I speak spanish and french fluently, my Mandarin is alright and I can survive in Hindi."

"That´s quite impressive for a fourteen-year-old. What exactly is this divorce you spoke of, and how could your mother remarry after your fathers death?" Catelyn asked.

"My father´s not dead, let´s start with that. A divorce is when a married couple doesn´t get along anymore, so they undo the marriage. My mom met my stepdad and they fell in love, so they got married."

Catelyn Stark looked so disturbed, Alethia thought she had just seen a ghost. "That´s highly improper. Highborn ladies don´t marry out of love. Besides, how could she give birth to a bastard. She could be stoned in Westeros."

"Well thank god she´s not in Westeros then. Where I´m from, arranged marriages are extremely rare and outdated. Most people marry out of love. If it doesn´t work out, you get a divorce. And my brother is not a bastard. The whole concept doesn´t exist anymore."

"It doesn´t?" Jon spoke up for the first time, his voice filled with emotions.

"Nope, completely outdated. And anyways, it doesn´t make sense. Bastards aren´t any less human and they shouldn´t be punished for the actions of their parents." Alethia stared at Ned.

There was a very uncomfortable pause. "So if I was from where you are from, Jon would be my brother, like actually a legitimate brother?" Arya asked.

"Yeah totally."

"That is absolutely fantastic. We should go where you are from, don´t you think father?"

"Arya, that is highly improper to say for a Lady, even if I agree. Besides, we don´t know if Lady Stahl can go back." Ned said sternly.

"Okay, any more questions?" Alethia asked.

"What is a school?" Sansa asked

"A school is an institution where all children go to learn how to read and write and such. Imagine the way you get tutored, only 26 children. Everything that all of you learn, I learn in the first four years of school. After that, there are usually eight or nine more. You have many more subjects that you have to study for like science and different languages. After that, if you successfully finish school you can study at another institution for education and go on to start your career."

"With this improper world you live in, I take it even women are allowed to go past basic education and learn more and then even start to work." Theon had surely been sarcastic.

Alethia couldn´t help but smirk. "You nailed it Theon."

"So what are you going to be when you grow up?" Bran asked.

"Dunno. I would love to pursue my dreams as a ballerina, but I´m not good enough so Imma study law and become an attorney."

"What´s that?" Robb wanted to know.

"It´s complicated to explain. Where I´m from, every criminal gets a trial. Not by combat of course. There are a few judges, a state attorney and an attorney defending the criminal."

"Why would anyone want a women defending them?" asked Theon.

"Because where I´m from, gender equality is a thing. Besides, women tend to make very good attorneys. ESPECIALLY in cases of sexual assault."

"This kind of talk isn´t suited for the ears of young girls, my Lady. Maybe we should all eat?" suggested Lady Catelyn.

"Yes, of course." Alethia replied 

<<<<>>>>

After dinner, Arya came up to Alethia. "Your world is really amazing. You can be whatever you want." 

"I agree, but you can do that here as well Arya, you just have to fight harder."

"I´m so excited for you to be my tutor." Arya said and seemingly satisfied, went skipping away.

Alethia knew she probably shouldn´t, but she was so going to instill modern feminist ideas in Arya.

"Your world sounds very progressive." Jon said

"I mean considering it´s about a thousand years in the future, yes it is."

Jon smiled. "Arya is going to idolize you, you know."

"She deserves to be who she wants. I know she doesn´t like being a lady. She should be able to learn how to fight and to explore and not to be married off to some lord she will never love."

"You speak in strange and very bold tongues, my Lady." was all that Jon said.

"You don´t speak much at all." They both laughed. "Teach me how to fight Jon, please. And don´t call me my Lady, just Alethia is enough."

"You are too kind."

"Nope just decent. Will you teach me?!

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"That´s stupid. I need to learn to defend myself."

"For what?"

"Winter is coming." Alethia knew Jon had no idea about the Walkers but she said it nonetheless.

"Snow won´t hurt you, you know."

"Just please."

"Fine. But don´t complain about being sore or something."

"I won´t I promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They just keep getting longer and longer, huh? Feedback is appreciated.


	5. A friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia proves her "powers"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year!

The next few days went by like a blur. Alethia spent most of her time teaching Arya or practising with Jon. Most of the time Arya was a good student and when she wasn´t, Alethia could usually bribe her with stories of badass female warriors like the Black Widow or Ahsoka Tano. The more practice she got with Jon the more confident she felt with a sword and the more comfortable she got around him.

At this point, Alethia didn´t know if the plot of the books or the show would even take place. She had been here for three months now and settled into the castle quite well. Almost no one thought of her as a witch anymore and Theon left her alone for the most part. She had even managed to sneak out a few times at night to practice ballet and swim in the hot springs.

It was her thirteenth week at Winterfell when the rider arrived. By now, Alethia didn´t eat with the Starks a lot. She preferred talking to the common folk. Their stories were much more interesting and they were generally a lot more chill. When Jon wasn´t trying to prove himself to Theon and Robb or his father, she taught him gen z slang. She was currently trying to explain “no shit Sherlock” but was interrupted by Maester Luwin.

“Lord Stark requests your presence at the high table my Lady.” he said and hurried back to his seat at said place. Alethia sighed and got up from her seat. Eddard Stark was still fucking intimidating, even when he was very nice to her most of the time.

“Lord Stark.”

“Lady Stahl. Have a seat, we have something to discuss.”

Eddard hesitated and then told Catelyn to take the children outside.

“Your prophecy has come true. I am to execute a traitor of the Night´s Watch today.” Lord Eddard told her with a heavy voice. 

“And what does that have to do with me?” Alethia replied. Lord Stark was a man of few words. He wouldn´t have called upon her if he didn´t want something from her.

“You will come with me. Along with Robb, Theon, Bran and Jon.” 

Alethia was slightly disturbed by the thought but nodded. She had of course seen the scene in the show, but watching someones head chopped of right in front of you was something else.

“Is that all?” she asked.

“Have one of the horses readied. We ride as soon as possible.”

Alethia knew what that meant. They would ride when Ned was done with breakfast and had said his prayers. She walked towards the doors and picked Jon up on the way.

“Your father is going to execute a traitor of the Night's Watch and we´re supposed to go with him.” Alethia told him.

Jon sniggered. “I can´t wait to see you ride again, Al.”

“Oh shut up Jon, that wasn´t my fault.” Alethia replied, embarrassed. She remembered the first time she was supposed to ride her horses with the Starks to Wintertown. After faking the worst fever, she had begged Jon, who´d stayed back, to teach her how to ride. Jon, like everyone else, was baffled by the idea of a lady not knowing how to ride and had laughed at her for about half an hour (okay maybe not that long) before teaching her the basics. Since then, Alethia had managed to stay in her saddle as long as she didn´t ride too fast.

<<<<>>>>

Alethia felt sick to her stomach. She hadn´t intended to look but after Theon had made one of his sexist comments again, she wanted to prove him wrong. Well, she had managed that, now she only had to keep herself from throwing up. Suddenly, she saw Jon and Robb racing away. She knew what that meant and she was proved right. After the rest of the group had caught up with Robb and Jon, they saw the stag. Soon after, Jon found the direwolves. 

“We should kill them.” Theon suggested.

Alethia had zoned out but payed attention when Theon said his line. She waited for Jon to say his line, but he never did. Theon was about to kill the first direwolf, the one Sansa would later call Lady, when Alethia quietly spoke up. As she didn´t talk much otherwise and hadn´t said a word since they´d left Winterfell, everyone turned around.

Instantly, Alethia felt uncomfortable yet she managed to deliver Jons line. “Don´t kill them, my Lord. Your children were meant to have them. They are after all, the sigil of your house. And look, there are three boys and two girls, just like your children.”

Of course, Bran, who seemed absolutely amazed and yet terrified of the idea, began begging his father to keep them. Ned delivered his little responsibility speech and they were off again. About ten minutes later they found Ghost.

<<<<>>>>

Alethia had just finished hurling her guts out, when Jon knocked on her door. She opened the door and, like everytime, had to ask ever so respectful Jon Snow to come into her room. She knew about the gossip in the castle. Quite frankly, she didn´t give a fuck.

“Now that your done with throwing up-.” Jon began.

“Let me stop you right there,” Alethia interrupted “if you tell Theon, I swear to god, you will catch these hands.”

“I won´t tell, pinky promise.” Jon replied seriously. Ever since Alethia had told him that breaking the pinky swear would mean his pinky got cut oof, he took it very seriously, which Al in turn found absolutely hilarious. 

“Anyways, as I was saying, Robert Baratheon will come to Winterfell soon.” After seeing Alethia turn as pale as a ghost in the prospect of a FUCKING FEAST with hundreds of people Jon carefully added “it´s your social anxiety for me.”

Alethia laughed. Jon using those phrases brought her a big comfort and even though it stung, remembering everything she left behind, it also made her feel more at home.

“Thank you Jon.”

“For what?”

“For everything.” Alethia was sure that Jon thought she was just saying that, but she meant it. He´d taught her how to ride, fight and live in this world in general. Even though she hoped to go back every day, a part of her wanted to stay as well. In the prospect of not going back, she had tried to get over Morgan. It still hurt like hell, but it got better every day. And besides, she had Jon as a friend now. Prejudice and shared experiences had brought them closer together. She knew she could trust him. At least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My family and I are currently relocating, which is why I won´t be updating as regulary. My internet is pretty bad, which is why I couldn´t update yesterday but I´ll do my best.


	6. Seating arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see Arya and Al talking in their lessons, the king arrives at Winterfell, Joffrey is an ass and Tyrion is pretty cool. (Al-> Alethias nickname)

"Arya I know you can do it, you´re not dumb you´re just lazy." Alethia groaned. Arya was refusing to do her math problems, again. When Arya was in a good mood, her lessons would be over in an hour. But today was not the day. She had been in a terrible mood for the whole day, the prospect of wearing a dress and talking to southern ladies made her mad and now she was refusing to do any work.

"If you do your work you can go outside and play with Nymeria until you have to get ready." Alethia argued

"Well, I don´t want to get ready for the stupid prince and the stupid ladies. This whole thing is totally useless." Arya argued back. "What a brat:" Alethia thought. Even though Arya was much better than Sansa, she still had her moments where Alethia thought it would be good for her to see how cruel this world actually was. She was going to get her chance in the future anyways so Alethia didn´t bother.

"Let´s make a deal: you do your work and I´ll tell you a story about Athena." Al offered

"Who´s Athena?" Arya asked curiously. 

"What a shame I can´t tell you what an amazing woman she was." Al sighed in fake distress

Finally, Arya got to work.

<<<<>>>>

After getting Arya to her room, Alethia decided to go talk to Lady Catelyn. While she admired the strength Catelyn showed and would show in the future, the two of them didn´t exactly get along. They were on friendly terms, as was expected, but their different views on things, mainly marriage, politics and Jon kept them from actually becoming friends. Al was going to her because she was basically the event manager. Al found Catelyn in the Great Hall.

"My Lady" she said, and managed a clumsy curtsy. The limited time she and Sansa had been together, Sansa had taught her how too be a "real lady" meaning she taught her how to curtsy, walk, talk and exist with a ladylike air. Alethia managed to do the bare minimum, but it seemed to be enough. 

"Lady Alethia, it is a pleasure to see you. I have been wanting to speak to you for a while now. How are Arya´s lessons going?"

"Quite good. She´s a fast learner when she wants to. I expect that´s not the reason you wanted to speak to me?" Alethia asked

"Indeed it is not. I wanted to speak to you because of the feast. There are seating arrangements and you will be escorted to your seat by someone." Catelyn had a look of pity on her face.

"And that someone is? I wouldn´t mind being escorted by Jon, my Lady."

Lady Catelyn looked utterly horrified by the thought of Jon as a person.

"Oh no, Jon won´t be sitting at the high table today, it might seem like an insult to the royal family, him being a bastard and all. You´ll be escorted by Tyrion Lannister. I´m sorry Lady Alethia, I don´t wish to slight you in any way, but your ranks only make it fitting that you and Lord Tyrion walk together."

Alethia couldn´t believe it. She didn´t care what they said about Tyrion, she respected him deeply, both in the show and the books. Not only was he smart and funny, but he was a good person too and Alethia knew that he really only wanted to be appreciated.

"No offence was taken, my Lady. I´ve heard of Lord Tyrions sharp tongue and wit. I´m quite happy to finally meet him."

Lady Catelyn looked visibly relieved. "Well, good that that´s clear. Why don´t you go get ready, the king and his party are arriving soon. I´ll take care of Arya."

Now it was Alethia´s turn to be relieved. Getting herself ready would be a struggle in itself but getting Arya ready had grown to be one of her greatest fears since coming to Winterfell.

<<<<>>>>

Alethia was sitting in her room, pondering on what to wear, when there was a soft knock on the door. This was neither Arya or Jon, they wiuld both knock agressively and then walk in like they owned the place. This was a true lady.

"Come in Lady Sansa." Alethia called out.

"Hello Lady Alethia" Sansa said, thinking over what to say next. "Ummm, I know you´re not really a westerosi Lady, so I thought I´d help you to get ready." She looked down nervously concentrating on the bag in her hands.

"Thank you, Lady Sansa. I could really use your help." Sansa was already in her clothes and had done her hair in a still northern style. "You look wonderful by the way."

"Thank you my Lady. I mean no offence, but you have no festive clothing, so I altered one of my old dresses to fit you. And call me Sansa please, I would like us to be friends"

"Sansa, you´re the best!"

"I would help Arya get ready but she would probably set Nymeria on me. This is the dress."

The dress was absolutely gorgeous. It was a dark green with gold embroidery details on the arms and the waist with dagged sleeves. When Alethia put it on, it fit perfectly. She turned around and hugged Sansa. "You´re on the best way to becoming my firend. This is absolutely beautiful."

"Will you let me do your hair?" Sansa asked.

"Of course, I have no idea how that stuff works."

When Sansa was done, Alethia barely recognized herself. Her dark blond hair had been braided back on the sides. The two strands on each side meet in a braid that went down the back of her head. It was complemented by the golden details on the dress. The green of the dress brought out her eyes, Alethia looked like an actual medieval lady, and for the first time, she actually felt like it.

"I barely recognize myself, I look so... nice." Alethia said 

"You should wear that necklace you have on anyways, it´s golden too, so it´ll match." Sansa said. Even though she had just gotten praised, she remained humble, as was expected of a Lady.

"You are heavensent Sansa, I don't know what I would´ve done without you."

Finally, Sansa blushed a bit. "Thank you, Alethia. I´m going to find mother, see if she needs help with anything."

After Sansa had left, Alethia put on her necklace. It wasn´t actually real gold, but it didn´t hurt if no one knew that. Morgan had given it to her. It was a simple gold necklace with a gold coin as a pendant. Alethia put on her piercings too. She hadn´t worn them since coming here, but they would go nicely and if things got to awkward, they´d make for a good conversation starter.

After about half an hour it knocked on her door again. "Come in Jon." Alethia called. She had been sitting in the chair Sansa had left her in, not daring to move. She had feared that she´d ruin her dress or hair.

"Father said that they will arrive soon. Apparently you know where we are sitting but not where you are supposed to stand when they arrived. And-"

Jon broke of when he actually looked at Alethia.

"Wow Al, you look... if I didn´t know you, I´d think you would actually know how to curtsy."

"You could have been actually nice for once and then you told me that I make a terrible Lady Jon. That´s sad."

"I know I´m charming." Jon said, smiling. "Let´s go, before we´re there later than Arya."

"Arya? Late? Not on her mothers watch." Al said

"Well, she´s not exactly with Lady Catelyn anymore, which means that you, as her tutor, should at least try setting a better example." 

"Lead the way then, Jon"

<<<<>>>>

Alethia had been placed between Rickon and Theon. Even though she was highly uncomfortable next to Theon, the thought of Lady Catelyn holding her in higher esteem than Theon brought her endless gratification. The cloak Jon had made with her was actually warm and Theon seemed to be holding back for the moment. Her legs were getting a bit numb when the royal party rode in. Al sniggered to herself at Jaime´s prince charming look and almost missed her queue to kneel.

Robert Baratheon got out and told Ned that he had gotten fat. After they had all gotten up, Bobby B delivered his lines to Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon until he stood right in front of Alethia.

"Your Grace" Alethia tried and curtsied.

Robert Baratheon looked at her for a while, seemingly undressing her with his eyes. Alethia was about to ask him if he was feeling alright when he finally spoke.

"Are you this Alethia? Ye look more like some long-lost Lannister."

"I can assure you that I am not, your Grace, not to my knowledge at least. I might be wrong though." Alethia replied

"Ye got a pretty face."

"Uhh, thank you?"

"Yer welcome. Ned, I want to pay my respects in the crypts."

<<<<>>>>

Tyrion Lannister was nowhere to be found. Well, he could be found in the brothel, but no one seemed to bother with trying to get him to the feast. Alethia was a bit lost until Catelyn came up to her. "I´m so sorry Alethia, we tried everything to find him. Jaime Lannister will escort you."

"Okay" Alethia said. She didn´t really mind. At least he wouldn´t stare at her. He was to preoccupied with his sister after all.

Jaime Lannister didn´t even bother looking at her and just offered his arm. They walked to the high table together and Alethia tried to make an apologetic facce in Jons direction. Before she sat down, she payed her respects to the king and the queen. The queen got up and said "Lannister or not, it is a pleasure to finally meet you, we have heard so much about you, my Lady."

Alethia was surprised by this. Normally, Cersei gave zero fucks about people she didn´t have to pay attention to. She was even more surprised when Cersei leaned down to kiss her cheeck. That is, until she whispered in her ear. "You will never be a Lannister. If you look at my brother like that again, I´ll have you killed, slut." 

Feeling brave, Alethia whispered back "No worries your Grace, I won´t touch your prince charming with a stick if I don´t have to."

With that, she took her seat and started eating, not caring if the King had started to eat yet. She might just be dead before the night was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dress: https://armstreet.com/store/medieval-clothing/medieval-dress-tunic-forest-princess  
> hair: https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+hairstyles&rlz=1C1NMEO_deDE931DE931&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-_KHx_v7tAhXvyDgGHfMWCvMQ_AUoAXoECBkQAw&biw=1280&bih=578#imgrc=gTHh9cBQcIXREM  
> piercings: https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+hairstyles&rlz=1C1NMEO_deDE931DE931&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-_KHx_v7tAhXvyDgGHfMWCvMQ_AUoAXoECBkQAw&biw=1280&bih=578#imgrc=gTHh9cBQcIXREM


	7. It´s cold at the Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The real plot begins! Alethia gets sent to the Wall, talks to Jon and Catelyn  
> TW: sexual assualt/harrassment

The feast was in full swing. Alethia was thinking about slipping away and finding Jon, who had left earlier after his fight with a man who seemed to be uncle Benjen. She was about to get up when Lady Catelyn told Robb to bring Arya and Sansa to bed. The only exit left was the one where the king was standing and flirting with a serving girl. It would have to do. Alethia got up and made her way around dancing ladies and groping men, oblivious of the watchful eyes of Cersei, Catelyn and Ned. She was almost past the king when she felt someone grope her from behind.

Without thinking, Alethia whirled around and slapped the man who had touched her, Lady or not, she wasn´t just going to let this go with a smile. She immediately regretted her actions when she saw that it was the king she had hit, who was now apparently trying to do the same thing. Alethia ducked and took a few steps back. The king was black-out drunk and he stunk. Alethia could smell him even from a meter away.

"My king!" Cersei called out in fake concern "did this woman strike you? You should take her hand, or even better, her head."

"Shut it woman." Robert slurred

Alethia was terrified of what was going to happen to her. She fekt relieved when she sensed Neds presense beside her. Lady Catelyn was watching a few meters away.

"Lady Alethia Stahl is my guest and though what she did was wrong, she will not be killed for practicing self-defense." Ned said calmly.

"What do I care, send her to the Watch." Robert said, obviously still drunk.

"My husband, you cannot send her to the Night´s Watch, it is only for men." Cersei replied. Robert seemd to think about it. Probably just wanting to spite Cersei, he slowly turned to face his wife and then roared "IF I SAY THAT SHE WILL JOIN THE NIGHTS WATCH THEN SHE WILL JOIN THE FUCKING NIGHTS WATCH."

Ned turned pale, as did Alethia. For a moment, everything was quiet in the Great Hall. Then, everyone started talking at once. People started shouting at each other, at the king, at Lord Stark and at Lady Alethia. Alethia stood frozen for a few minutes. Then, she pushed past Ned and walked to the door. In the uproar, no one tried to stop her. That is, no one but the Hound, who stood right outside the door.

"Stupid of you to hit the king, my Lady." was all he said

"You can drop the whole Lady bullshit, I just want to get some fresh air." replied Alethia

"Why should I let you do that, you´re a criminal, apparently."

"I didn´t even have a fucking trial. Besides where will I go? I can barely ride, I don´t know the geography, my only fucking useful skill is reading and writing. Tell me, where the FUCK should I go. Thank you." and with that, Alethia pushed past the Hound.

"You sure got a foul mouth on you for a lady." the Hound called after her.

time skip

Alethia had been walking around the castle for some time when she spotted Tyrion and Jon talking.

"Hi Lord Tyrion, hey Jon. How´s it hanging?" Alethia asked.

"What did she say?" asked Tyrion

"She wants to know what we are talking about and how we are feeling, basically." Jon said. He stopped when he saw the dissheveled look on Alethias face. "What happened?"

"King groped me, I threw hands." Alethia replied

"What is she saying?" asked Tyrion 

"You HIT the KING?" Jon almost shouted at her.

"Wait what?" said Tyrion, looking back and forth between the two.

"Yup, looks like I´m joining you in celibacy Jon. The king wants me to join the Night´s Watch."

"But he cannot send you to the Night´s Watch, it´s only for men." Jon said

"That´s what she said." replied Alethia and walked off. Why did no one want to have a conversation about anything else with her?

time skip: the day of the departure

Alethia was running around the Winterfell, trying to find Lord Stark. She had to warn him before everything went south (excuse this terrible pun). The last few days, he had been surrounded by guards and advisors. She hadn´t been able to talk to him. She must have gotten lost, because she stumbled upon Brans sickroom. She had found him after coming back from her secret ballet practice and had of course been accused of pushing him but in the end, she wasnßt suspected anymore. She had saved him with basic first aid and human sense after all.

"Lady Alethia." Lady Catelyn nodded curtly

"Lady Catelyn, I have to talk to Lord Stark." Alethia said.

"Lord Stark will not receive you."

"May I speak to you?"

"You may."

"I must warn you. Pleaso stop Lord Stark from going South. The men of the Stark family don´t do well there, we both know it. And if you cannot stop him, please do not go after him and refrain from anything having to do with the Lannisters."

"Any other ominous warnings?" Catelyn asked tiredly

"Keep his direwolf close." Alethia said, pointing to not-yet-named Summer "and thank you, Lady Catelyn, for everything. I know that you would´ve protected me instead of your husband, if he hadn´t spoken up."

"I was only doing my duty."

"Unlike many others. I admire you Lady Catelyn. You are an incredible woman, stronger and wiser than many men. Farewell." impressed by her own speech, Alethia left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually didn´t dislike Robert Baratheon in the series or the books but I had to make him look like an ass here in favour of the plot, sorry


	8. Thieves, poachers and rapists

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Alethia ride north and meet their new brothers. They arrive at Castle Black and Alethia gets her job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m not sure when exactly Jon gave Needle to Arya, but here he gave it to her before going to the stables.

When Al walked to the stables, she saw Jon and Robb saying their farewells. She halted abruptly, not wanting to interrupt, which caused Arya to bump into her.

"Whoa, careful Arya. Don´t want you to break anything before you get the chance to go to King´s Landing."

"Hello Al, I just wanted to say goodbye. Thank you for being such an amazing teacher." then she lowered her voice and said "Jon gave me a sword. I named it Needle. Maybe I´ll come visit you at the Wall and then we can see who´s better."

"I would love that." Alethia replied "say goodbye to Nymeria for me. Don´t do anything too stupid, I care about you too much."

"Of course. Bye Al!"

"Bye Arya." she ran off and Alethia sighed. Arya had always been one of her favorite characters on the show and Al had grown even coser to her while tutoring her. She didn´t want Arya to go through the pain that lay in her future.

Alethia was about to go to Jon, seeing that he had also saddled a horse for her, when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around, expecting to see anyone but Sansa. Sansa had avoided you by all costs since the evening of the feast, which you could understand. At this point, she was still young and betrothed to the King´s son. She would have to take his side.

"Lady Alethia, I wanted to say Goodbye to you. You don´t deserve what happened to you. When I become queen, I´m sure we can figure something out. Maybe Joffrey will let you return from the Wall." she said quietly

"Thank you Sansa, that is very sweet." Alethia felt her heart break for Sansa. Young, naive Sansa who was already thinking about `saving´her. "Sansa, I need you to promise me something." Alethia said

"What is it?" she asked

"Promise, no swear it to me, swear that you´ll stay strong. Don´t stop fighting and don´t give up, ever."

Sansa looked at her, confused. "Alright, I swear it. I swear that I´ll stay strong, by the Old Gods and the New."

"Thank you Sansa. Take care, not everyone is your friend. Goodbye."

"You take care aswell my Lady, I hope to see you again sometime."

And with that, Sansa Stark was off. The little bird was going to become someone stronger or maybe Sansa wouldn´t even have to go through everything that her character had to go through. If only Lady Stark listened to her.

time skip: a few days later

Alethia had been riding for a while now. Most of the time, she kept to herself. Sometimes she talked to Tyrion or Jon. Today she was riding in the middle of their little column when Benjen Stark came up to her. Except for a few `thank yous´or a curt nod, they hadn´t interacted.

"The Wall isn´t the place for a Lady." he said

"I know." Alethia replied. If he was going to keep it short, she might aswell do the same.

"Some of them will try to rape you."

"They can try. I plan on sleeping with a dagger by my side. I´m a woman, not dumb."

"I heard you are quite an unusual Lady. What do you plan on doing at Castle Black?"

"Well, I can´t cook, I´m not good at mending things and I´m not strong enough to be a builder either. That leaves Ranger or Steward. You won´t let me be a Rsnger and you won´t teach me how to fight. Leaves Steward. I can read and write, which is a rare quality here and I´m not bad at learning new things. I was thinking that Maester Aemon could teach me about healing. He´s old and until he chooses someone else to become the Maester of Castle Black I can help him with the Wounded or copy old books from the library." Alethia said. She had thought about her options for a while and this position wouldn´t take away Samwell Tarly´s position. She would mostly be left to her own devices and maybe the men of the Night´s Watch would even respect her.

"Very well, I´ll consider that." Benjen replied "anything else?"

"I would still like to learn how to fight. The Long Night is coming and you need every fighter, regardless of their gender."

"How do you know about the Long Night." Benjen Stark asked, seemingly unsettled

"You´ll come to learn that I know quite a few things."

"Good. Knowledge is valuable." and with that, the First Ranger rode off again.

time skip: that evening

They had just set up camp, when Alethia heard riders approaching.

"Do you know who that is?" she asked Jon

"No idea, probably men of the Watch:" he replied

Shortly after, Yoren and his recruits entered the camp. Alethia knew some of them were rapists and instinctively plopped down between Tyrion and Jon. They both gave her a strange look but didn´t say anything.

Yoren and Benjen greeted each other and Yoren introduced the men he had brought with him.

"These are Chett and Kurz. They are from the Fingers, rapists. And you are?" he asked looking at Jon and Alethia. Alethia was going to speak up when Tyrion said

"This is Jon Snow and this Lady Alethia Stahl."

"A woman. You betrothed to her? Never heard of House Stahl." Yoren replied. Tyrion was about to say something again, but Alethia was quicker.

"I can speak for myself, thank you my Lord. I´m not betrothed to Lord Tyrion, I´m joining the Watch." she said

"Yer a woman. Ye can´t." Yoren replied

"It wasn´t exactly my choice." Alethia replied

"The watch really isn´t what it used to be. Thieves, rapists, poachers and now women." Yoren said. Chett and Kurz greedily looked at Alethia who in turn took out her dagger and started sharpening it.

time skip: arrival at Castle Black

After a few more days of riding, Alethia and Jon finally arrived at Castle Black. When Alethia rode into Castle Black, some men stopped waht they were doing to oogle at her. By now, she was used to getting much more attention from men than in New York, but this was a whole new level. They somehow looked hungry and Al didn´t like that at all.

"Men of the Night´s Watch." Alethia looked up to see Jeor Mormont standing at the balcony thing. "The king has seen fit to send a woman to the Night´s Watch."

A murmur went through the crowd. They seemed happy and at the same time disgusted at her presence.

"Some of you are here on charges of rape. Lady Alethia will not be harmed in any way. Should someone forget themselves and break their vows, I am sure that they will have no problem with bearing the consequences."

"And what would that include?" someone yelled from the crowd.

"Castration. Followed by hanging. As you can see, it is not worth it. Feel free to either make the way to Mole´s Town or relieve yourself. This woman is no excuse for misbehavior." Jeor Mormont turned around and went back inside.

Alethia got off her horse, ignoring the whispers that were without doubt about her.

"What do we do now?" she asked Jon

"I guess we go to the Hall. It´s almost sundown after all."

Together, they went to the hall and sat down at the far end of the benches. After they got their dinner, they sat down to eat. Alethia had barely taken two bites, when Yoren approached her.

"Maester Aemon and the Lord Commander want to talk to you." Al got up "save some for me." she told Jon and made her way to the High Table. She had seen Benjen Stark talk to Jeor Mormont but she hadn´t expected them to decide on the matter so quickly.

"You requested my presence, Maester Aemon?" she asked

"Yes, I have a few questions for you." he said "how did you know I was Maester before you came here?"

"I listen when people talk. Benjen Stark mentioned you. I asked Jon and he said that there is only one Maester at each castle. I assumed you were Maester at Castle Black."

He seemed to look at her with his blind eyes before asking his next question. "Why do you want to learn about healing from me."

"No offense, but you are old. Until you choose your succesor and until he is Maester, you need someone to help you. Besides, it´s one of the only positions open to me and the only where I could possibly be treated with respect."

"How so?" Maester Aemon asked

"You don´t want to be rude to someone you might depend on one day, especially if that is very likely. Don´t want to die from a minor infection because you were rude."

"You are wise beyond your years." Aemon said. "You can read and write?"

"Yes."

"You want to learn how to fight?"

"Correct." Alethia replied, getting irritated at his questions.

"Why?"

"Because first of all, the Lord Commanders warning won´t stop everyone and second of all, the Wall needs fighters. Even if they aren´t men."

"Very well, you will be trained in combat, just like the rest of the recruits. The rest of the day, you will learn everything I know. What do you already know?"

"Basic First Aid." Alethia said. Maester Aemon raised an eyebrow and Alethia explained. "Where I´m from, it´s a common skillset. You learn how to stop people from natural choking, how to revive them and how to treat stab wounds or similar until professional aid arrives."

"Good. We begin tomorrow. Half of the time, I will teach you, the other half you will copy books in the library. Now off you go, enjoy your supper." satisfied, Maester Aemon continued eating.

This was going to be interesting.


	9. Florian and his Jonquil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training begins... Does Alliser Thorne ship it?

The unpleasantly bright light and the squawking of ravens was what woke Alethia the next morning. She had had a hard time falling asleep, even when she had taken precautions to make her resting place unknown to everyone but Jon, who had assured her that Ghost was keeping watch at the base of the old tower. She sighed and got up. 

Like all the other recruits, Alethia had been provided with black clothes to wear. Whoever had picked out her clothing had surely been a perv, there were quite a few low-cut black dresses that weren´t very practical but showed a lot of skin. Somehow she was also grateful for whomever had picked out her clothes. She had quite a wide range and there were a few practical pieces aswell. Maybe having old men simping for you wasn´t always that bad.

Alethia got dressed in one of those tunic things and breeches and the coat from Winterfell, which was also black, conveniently. She was headed towards the dining hall when she heard Tyrion call her name.

"Lady Alethia, wait up!" he called, waddling up to her.

"There´s no need to call me Lady, my Lord." Alethia replied

"I wanted to apologize. It was rude of me to keep you waiting that night in Winterfell. Perhaps if I´d been better company in Winterfell, you wouldn´t be here today."

"No worries. Though Queen Cersei would´ve probably been much nicer to me, I would not say that it was you who brought me here. I´m quite good at doing dumb shit." 

Tyrion laughed with her and they entered the dining hall. Like yesterday, a lot of heads turned as soon as Alethia walked in. She wasn´t sure if she´d ever get used to the blatant staring but she tried to ignore it as well as she could. Staring was better than catcalls and catcalls were better than rape, she told herself. She got the slob that slightly resembled porridge and scanned the hall to find Jon, who was sitting alone in a corner.

"I will take my leave now my Lord."

"Of course, I hope we will speak again before I depart."

"You´d have an easier time making friends if you actually talked to people and tried to look aproachable." Alethia told Jon as she sat down next to him.

"I don´t need friends." was all Jon said in return.

"Okay emo boy, I get that you had a bad night but I did too and I´m not bitching around am I? You´ll need more useful friends than me."

"Whatever you say."

"What´s wrong Jon?" Alethia asked in earnest

"Tyrion was right. The Night´s Watch is far from what I imagined it to be."

"Are you going to leave? I mean you still could if you wanted to."

"No. I made a vow to myself, I intend to keep it. Besides, who will protect you if Ghost is gone." Alethia smiled at Jon, he was, to say it in gen z terms, a soft boi, even though he did his best to hide it.

"Then you better eat your portion of slob. I don´t think Ser Allisers training is going to be any better on an empty stomach."

"How do you know that?"

Shit. He had her there. "Well, he looked like he had a stick up his ass yesterday and he never laughs. I heard Commander Mormont talk to him yesterday."

time skip: training

"So. You are the new recruits. How dissapointing. I didn´t think that I´d be training literal girls ever again, I already train enough green boys that come close to it. Get in pairs." Ser Alliser was obviously not thrilled about his job and made that very clear. Nonetheless, pairs wouldn´t be that bad. Alethia made her way over to Jon.

"Not so fast Jonquil. Florian needs to actually train. You go with Grenn." Alliser smirked his vile grin. Great, Alethia thought. The one guy who looked like he could actually fight was paired up against her.

She squared her shoulders and walked up to him. "I normally don´t fight girls, I´ll go easy on you." he said

"I normally don´t fight guys with small dicks, I´ll go easy on you." Alethia replied, annoyed. That hadn´t been a good idea, a terrible idea, Alethia realized.

Grenn and his tiny ego were now charging at her full speed. She dodged out of the way and delivered a blow on his back. Grenn caught himself and swung at her right side. Alethia blocked and attacked his stomach. He parried and swung at her like an executioner. Even though she managed to block him, he was much stronger and pushed his sword down on her with his entire bodyweight.

"You implying that yer pretty boy over there is good at fucking?" he snarled

Alethia sidestepped and regained her fighting stance. "I don´t know about Jon, but the way you´re behaving does imply that you are in fact underequipped." she was already sick of men. 

Grenn charged again and Alethia, again, merely stepped away. He swung at her and she parried. She swung and he attacked her with a low blow. Alethia saw her chance and when Grenn left his guard down, she hit him on the wrist as hard as she could. With a yelp of pain, Grenn let his sword fall to the ground. He bent down to snatch it up, but Alethia held hers at his throat. Grenn was red with rage as she smirked at him.

"Yield."

"I yield."

Alethia offered her hand to pull him up and Grenn took it, only to pull her on the ground.

"I´ll never yield to you bitch." he yelled

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?" Alethia shouted back. She tried to free herself from his grip but he had her pinned her down. She kneed him in the groin as hard as she could. Finally, he let go of her a bit. Alethia used this chance and got up before he could. When he finally did, she punched him in the face.

"That will be enough." Ser Alliser shouted at both of them. "What are you thinking. This will get us nowhere."

"She insulted me Ser."

"Only in retaliation." Alethia responded "You´re just embarrassed that you lost against a girl."

Grenn held his nose, which had begun to bleed during their argument. "You will both be punished acc-" Alliser began, when Maester Aemon interrupted him.

"That won´t be neccesary my good Ser. I believe Alethia has her first patient."

Alethia rolled her eyes and Grenn shot her a dirty look. "Follow me, the both of you please."

"So, Alethia, what do you recommend against nosebleeds?" Aemon asked her when she had sat Grenn down in the infirmary.

"What?"

"You said you had some experience with treating minor injuries."

"Oh right. I´ll need you to sit upright and breathe through your mouth please. Pinch the bridge of your nose with your fingers, until I hand you a handkerchief." Alethia looke around and spotted a rag that would have to do for now.

"Here. Now GENTLY blow your nose." Alethia enunciated the gently. She had a feeling that Grenn would just hardcore blow his nose to proove his manliness but that wouldn´t help at all. Grenn grumbled but eventually obliged.

"Now tilt your head back and keep on pinching, I´ll find you some ice." Alethia went to the windowsill of the infirmary and scraped of some ice and snow and put it in another rag.

When the bleeding stopped, Alethia turned to Maester Aemon. "The bleeding has stopped, now what?"

"See him off, you´ll stay here with me until lunch."

Alethia turned to Grenn. "Keep your head above your heart okay? Don´t bend down and don´t pick or blow your nose. If you start bleeding again, come here. I´m sorry about that by the way."

"Sorry about cheating." Grenn muttered and then left.

time skip: dinner

Alethia had missed her lunchbreak and by the time it was dinnertime, her stomach was completely empty. She guided Maester Aemon to his seat and then scanned the room for Jon. When she saw him surrounded by the other recruits, she knew that the whole death threat thing had happened in her absence.

Approaching the table, she felt like the new girl at highschool. "Mind if I sit?" she asked.

"Sure." Jon replied and scooted over. He made some space between him and Pypar. Alethia sat down and looked at Grenn, who was now sitting across from her. She nodded her head in acknowledgement and listened to the conversation between the others. Slowly, she began to zone out.

"Al."

"Hey Al." Jon prodded her shoulder.

"Hm?"

"I was just telling them about you falling into the Great Hall. Since you are from a different world, mind sharing any drinking games."

"And here I was thinking you were responsible. Well, we could play truth or drink."

"How does that work?" Pypar asked.

"Someone asks a question and the person who was asked must answer truthfully or drink. The person at whom the question was last directed at is the next to ask a question. How about you start asking."

"Sure."

Alethia listened to her game being played until it was her turn.

"Are you a virgin?" Jon asked her

"Seriously Jon? That´s the question you´re gonna ask me?" she thought about it. Did Morgan count? Probably not, she atleast wasn´t going to admit having lesbian sex, and since it wasn´t in their definition of virgin anyways, she could tell the truth. "I´ve never fucked a man. Props to you for saving me from Theon."

"And what about you Jon, are you a virgin?" Alethia knew the answer of course, but she wanted to get back at him. Jon drank. 

"That means he´s a virgin" Pypar loudly proclaimed. Alethia snorted. Right now, life at the Wall didn´t seem that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I´m sorry for doing my boy Grenn so dirty. I promise they´ll be friends eventually.


	10. Chop it off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samwell Tarly arrives at Castle Black, Alethia has a really bad hair day and reconciles with Grenn. Tyrion leaves the Wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I´m not quite sure if Tyrion and Sam were at the Wall at the same time but here, Sam arrives the day Tyrion leaves.

Alethia was organizing the medical supplies in the infirmary when she was summoned to the court of the castle. It was customary at Castle Black for the recruits to be there when new potential brothers joined them. She rushed down the stairs, cursing herself for wearing a dress today. When she didn´t have training, Alethia preferred to wear dresses sometimes as you could put layer over layer and be very warm. It was good for minimal walking but not for rushing down the stairs.

Luckily, she made it down without falling and met up with Pyp, Jon and Grenn, who she tried to stear clear of. They just both weren´t very comfortable around and there was no need to put salt in the wound anyways. When the gates opened, she immediately recognised Samwell Tarly.

"Who´s that?" Grenn asked

"His sigil says he´s a Tarly of Hornhill." Pyp said, he did have a very good knowledge about sigils after being with a mummers troupe for so long.

"His name is Samwell Tarly, he is a southerner and an ass guy." Alethia added

"How do you know?" Jon raised an eyebrow at her

"Seriously? It´s my thing. You really ought to know by now." Alethia rolled her eyes while Pyp sniggered. Alliser Thorne, who despised every form of human happiness, whacked him over the head. 

Sam got off of his horse and was welcomed with the other recruits. When one of them spotted Alethia, Mormont gave his little speech that had been dubbed the "Ladys speech". After that, Alethia returned to the infirmary. Soon, the new recruits joined the others in their training.

"How are the new recruits faring?" Aemon suddenly inquired

"Just as good as the others."

"So not very good."

"No."

"How is this Samwell faring, he was a lordling after all so he must have some training. What do you know about him and what do you suggest?" you hadn´t expected it, but Maester Aemon always asked for your opinion and your advice. It was his way of teaching and learning at the same time.

"He is well fit to follow you as the maester of Castle Black. Make him your steward."

"I already have a steward."

"He can´t read."

"You can do that."

"I´m a woman, the citadel won´t let me forge a chain. They wouldn´t be swayed by the Good Queen Alysanne, they won´t be swayed by anyone else, even if they have Targaryen blood."

"I suppose you are right. I will speak to Mormont about this Samwell. If my passing comes early, you can teach him what you have already learned until he forges his chain."

"And after that, the Watch won´t have any use to me."

"That is not true. I have listened to the men talking to you while you treat them. They aren´t as shy to be treated by you, they feel like you won´t judge them. And they talk to you about their problems too. They think I don´t listen because I´m blind, which doesn´t make any sense at all, but that way I was able to see the moral support you give. You are much needed here, Alethia. Many of the men have begun to see you as a sister or a daughter and even though the lustier lads without moral still stare, they respect you. And the recruits will come to respect you too."

"You think so?" Alethia hadn´t thought about it that way.

"Yes. You are special Alethia, like the Targaryens but at the same time completely different. I felt it the first time I met you. This strange place you are from, from what you have told me, magic there is dead."

"Magic never existed there." Alethia interjected

"Magic exists everywhere. It doesn´t die, it merely sleeps. It sleeps in you too. You are different. It is a shame you are here and not somewhere else, where you could do good at a much larger scale. Yet I think you will still do great things, dear. The Starks are right, Winter is coming. You know what comes with it and when it does, you will know how to stop it. Not in the way you think now. I think your magic will awaken at the right time."

After their talk, Alethia brushed it off as some old mens belief but she couldn´t stop thinking about what Aemon had said. He knew the Others were coming. He knew she knew how to stop them but he seemed to think that she would find another way, in herself, to stop them. Deep in thought, she haphazardly copied the old tomes in the library and then went across the court to the dining Hall. On the way, she almost ran into Tyrion Lannister.

"My apologies, my Lord."

"No worries, we are all deep in thought from time to time."

"I should´ve watched where I was going nonetheless. You are leaving tomorrow, I heard."

"Yes. I am returning to King´s Landing. Any advice?"

"Be talkative with Bronn, he is fond of gold."

"You are a strange girl."

"So I am told. Any advice from your side?"

"Stay the way you are. LI don´t know you well my Lady, but I respect the aspects I do know." he held out his hand. "May we meet again"

Alethia shook his hand, not without correcting him. "Until we meet again."

They entered the dining hall together but soon went differnet ways. Alethia made her way to the table that was preoccupied with Grenn, Pyp and Jon.

"How´s it going?" she asked

"Good. Sam´s not a fighter though." Jon said

"That´s the nice way to say it. He´s a coward, he admitted it himself." Pyp added

"It takes courage to admit that to yourself and everyone else, you know. Why is he sitting alone?" Alethia asked after seeing him sit in a corner, avoiding every kind of eyecontact.

"No one wants to talk to him." Grenn paused and looked at him

"And?" Alethia asked

"I think we should sit with him. He might be a nice person after all."

Alethia smiled and agreed and soon, they made thier way to his table, after having agreed to stop Ser Allisers cruel treatment against Sam. Alethia had assured that she´d already talked to Aemon about him. She and Grenn sat down next to him, as it had been their idea.

"You must be Samwell Tarly. I´m Alethia, nice to meet you." Alethia held out her hand to Sam, who reluctantly shook it.

"I´m Sam. You´re the one they keep talking about at court."

"That´s news to me. What do they say?"

Sam looked at his suddenly interesting food.

"You can tell me. I don´t care, it doesn´t count here."

"It differs. Some say you are a witch, others say you are a supporter of the Targaryens who wanted to shame Robert. Some say the Gods sent you to humble him."

"I´m pretty sure I´m not godsent. What do you think?"

"I wasn´t there."

"What do you think?" Grenn asked him this time.

"I think you could´ve just went along with it. You wouldn´t be here then."

"I´m right where I´m supposed to be. And I think you will find your place here."

Sam looked at her and Alethia thought it looked hopeful. She knew that both in the books and in the show, he had never really belonged anywhere, not even the Night´s watch. She was determined to change that. The look only lasted a split second then Sam turned away. Their group of now five resumed the conversation and when it fell upon women, Alethia tuned out and got lost in her thoughts. She was listening absentmindedly when Sam said his line in the show and she knew that it was her "time to shine".

"Really? I prefer it when they walk away from me." Sam said, already blushing

Pyp, Grenn and Jon stared at Alethia

"Told you he´s an ass man." she shrugged

A now unsure Sam looked back and forth between the three and Alethia. After an awkward moment of silence she threw up her hands in defeat. 

"Fine, I guessed." she lied

"You would make a great gambler." Jon said

"Huh?" 

"You always guess correctly."

"It seems like I´m your personal oracle. Ask away."

"What will I be?" Grenn asked

"Builder."

"That´s obvious." Pyp said "what will Ser Alliser drill us in tomorrow?"

"Sword. He wants to test Sam. And I´ll be there too. He loves seeing me lose."

"Will you?" Jon asked

"Against you? Most likely. I personally think I could be able to make a great archer but Thorne doesn´t seem to care."

When Alethia went to bed that night, she felt very content. Here at the Wall, she had a better chance of surviving than in the War of the Five Kings. She would stay here for now, atleast until Jons resurrection.

time skip: the next morning

She fuckinghated her life. Why did everything have to be so complicated. Her hair had stopped greasing so quickly. Instead it was now matted and impossible to brush through. Al gave up after half an hour and went to the hall the way she was. Maybe she could make it better at breakfast.

"Morning guys." she waved at the others who were already seated

"Morning Al."

"How was watchduty?"

"Alright. What happened to your hair?" Jon asked

"I woke up like this. I now have the strong urge to chop it off and throw it at Thorne."

"Why are you wearing pants?" Sam interjected

"Do you expect me to fight in a dress?"

"Not really."

After breakfast, Alethia still had a few minutes to herself in which she busied herself in the infirmary. She heard footsteps on the stairs and was surprised to see Grenn.

"How can I help you?" she asked him

"I was hoping to help you. I can braid your hair if you want." Grenn was blushing, probably because he thought it was "unmanly"

"That would be awesome. Where´d you learn?"

"I had four younger sisters. When my mom was... busy, I helped them to get ready sometimes. I wanted them to be better than my mother, than me."

"That´s very sweet Grenn. I´m sorry for being such a bitch."

"I´m sorry too. Please just don´t mention it to the others."

"Your secret´s save with me."

time skip: training yard

"Pretty sure the last time your hair looked that nice was when Sansa did it at Winterfell." Jon commented when Al came to join them from the infirmary. Grenn had went earlier so they would have a time delay.

"I guess I got lucky." Alethia replied

"How wonderful of you to join us today, Lady Black. Did you feel like fighting today?" Alliser asked. Al didn´t mind the new nickname. The older men who were prone to forgetfullness had begun to call her Lady Black, as she was the only woman who would take the Black. She was however annoyed by Alliser pretending that she normally didn´t join out of laziness.

"Maester Aemon saw it fit for me to join today."

Alliser seemed annoyed by the fact that he couldn´t get her riled up as quickly as all the other recruits. "We begin with swordpractice." was all he said

Al smirked in Pyps direction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alliser Thorne=Snape, change my mind  
> I think that Grenn is a builder in the books and I like it more that way so yeah...


	11. King in the North

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers swear their vows, Ned dies, Robb becomes King in the North, Jon doesn't handle it well and Al grieves for Ned aswell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally found the right apostrophies yay

It was finally the day that Alethia would become a sworn sister of the Night's Watch. She wasn't too into the idea of swearing away her life but then again, she reasoned, she would just have to wait until the Long Night was over. After that, the Night's Watch would probably be dissolved anyways. Right now, she was sitting between Pyp and Green, waiting for the announcements of the new recruits jobs to be made.

After the first part of the ceremony, the Lord Commander cleared his throat once again to announce the jobs.

"To the builders: Halder, Albett and Grenn."

Alethia high-fived Grenn and earned a glare from Ser Alliser, but she didn't care.

"To the rangers: Todder and Mathar. To the stewards: Sam, Jon, Pyp and Dareon. Finally, our dear Lady Black will become the personal assistant to Maester Aemon and headmistress of the infirmary to offer moral and physical support to the wounded."

After Commander Mormont was finished, Al saw Jon storm off angrily but as she saw Sam, Pyp and Grenn follow him, she didn't bother to get up. A few minutes later, when all recruits had sorted themselves to their new groups, Septon Cellador, who was for once not drunk, cleared his throat.

"All those who believe in the Seven may follow me into the sept to say their vows. Those who believe in the Old Gods can go with Bowen Marsh to the Weirwood tree."

Everyone except Alethia and Sam got up. When asked why, Sam explained his situation and joined Bowen Marsh and Jon.

"What about you, Lady Black? Don't believe in the right gods?" Ser Alliser sneered. Al knew he wasn't much of a believer himself.

"I was raised on a different god and even though my family wasn't very religous, I was still baptized. I would like to swear my vows to my gods. Do not fret, Ser Alliser, a simple room will suffice."

Alethia waited patiently until all the others had returned and then followed Ser Alliser, Maester Aemon and the Lord Commander to his office. She had taken the Religious Education book she had had with her that fateful day with her as a replacement to the bible. She had to swear on something believable after all.

When they reached his rooms, Commander Mormont closed the door behind him.

"We have decided that we cannot let you swear your vows. The king is dead, he was the one who commanded it. We do not know the new king and we won't let you swear your vows. You can stay here and play your role and one day, when the world has forgotten who you are, you will leave the Night's Watch and we won't mention it. You can make your life in the Free Cities then. You're pretty enough after all." Ser Alliser looked very satisfied with himself after that.

"You will be swearing a vow of secrecy though. Until one of us deems it safe, you may not speak of this to anyone, lie if you must." Commander Mormont added, managing to look at least a little ashamed.

Maester Aemon on the other hand smiled. "It is good that you have the possibility to leave my dear." was all he said

And so, Alethia swore on her schoolbook to never tell a soul of this decision, until deemed wise. She left the Commanders rooms with mixed feelings. She was angry and relieved at the same time. Why did her gender mean so much here? 

She met the other recruits in the Hall, where half of the men were already drunk. Only Jon sat glumly in his corner.

"Ghost found a hand today."

"I'm sure it's not Benjens."

"How do you know?"

"I'm an amazing gambler. Speaking of which, I bet you aren't going to drink because you're a party pooper."

"Watch me."

time skip: a few days later

After "swearing her vows" Alethia felt once again supported in her choice. She was going to fight against the Others, just like she was supposed to. That way, she would be able to protect the Starks, even if she wasn't in Winterfell or anywhere else that was relevant. She still dreaded the day that the raven would come, bringing the message of Ned's death and Robb's new kingship, though. Unlucky for her, she didn't know that day was today.

She had been sent to the rookery to feed the ravens. It was still her duty until Sam was assigned to Maester Aemon. 

"Watch where you're going." Jon snarled at Alethia after narrowly missing her on the stairs.

"I'm sorry Jon, I wasn't watching my step."

"Well maybe you should."

Alethia stared at him. It was so unlike Jon to be rude in the first place, but continually bitching around like that was something completely new to Alethia.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, now leave me alone." Jon pushed past Alethia, but she held him back.

"Don't lie to me. What's wrong?"

"It's none of your business." Jon shoved past Alethia, making the bucket with meat fall out of her hands.

"What the fuck Jon! Get a grip on yourself."

"It's not my fault all this shit is happening okay? I didn't ask for them to die. You should leave me alone, Al. If you already know-"

"Who's dead?"

"I thought you knew."

"Knew what?"

"Didn't Maester Aemon tell you?"

"Tell me what, Jon? Fucking get to the point."

"Father is dead. They beheaded him as a traitor."

Alethia sunk down on the stairs. She hadn't known Lord Stark very well, but he had protected her. He had saved her life, twice, and Alethia had failed to protect even one of his children.

"How are they taking it?"

"Sansa and Arya are still in King's Landing. Robb and Lady Catelyn are riding south, he's King of the North now. Bran and Rickon are still at Winterfell."

"Arya will get out."

"What?"

"You know her. She won't fucking stay in King's Landing with Cersei. I bet she's already planning her way over here. I'm sorry Jon. Can you get out a message to Robb?"

"Yes. Do you want me to write something to him?"

"Yes. Tell him to listen to his mother, she knows better. Tell him to honor his word and that he must keep his promise at all costs. Tell him to not trust Theon."

"I'll write that. Here." Jon picked up the bucket with meat and handed it back to Alethia.

"Thank you. I'll see you at dinner I guess. Annoy Ser Alliser from me."

"I'll do my best."

time skip: that night

Alethia wanted nothing more than to cry herself to sleep that night. She knew what was going to happen to the Starks now, the pain they were going to go through. Even though she couldn't help them anymore, she could still help Jon, which was why she quietly got up and snuck to the stables. She wouldn't let him down too.

"Where are you going?" Alethia whipped around and gave out a sigh of relief when she saw Sam standing at the doors of the stables.

"I'm getting Jon back here. You'll only weigh the horse down, go wake Pyp and Grenn. We need to get Jon back. Tell them I'm on my way."

"Alright. Did Jon tell you he was going to leave?"

"No. But his family is important to him. He does stupid shit sometimes."

"Take care."

"I will."

The tracks Jon had left were obvious. There were hooveprints next to the giant pawprints of Ghost and soon, said Direwolf came running out of the foliage, right at Alethia.

"Thank god you're here Ghost. Can you get me to Jon? We need to save him from himself."

Ghost, silent as ever, ran off into the woods and Al quickly followed. Soon, she saw Jon in front of her, still pressing his horse on. Alethia knew that he wouldn't make it go too quickly, as he probably underestimated her and Sam so as long as she didn't make a sound, she would be able to ride up pretty close.

The plan worked quite nicely too, until her horse whickered softly.

Jon whipped around on his own horse and saw Alethia a few lengths away. He urged his horse into a full sprint, but Alethia had a clear advantage on her side: her horse was bred for speed, not for distance. Soon, she was in front of Jon. By the time she had stopped him, she could hear Grenn, Pyp and a few others in the distance.

"Let me leave."

"Over my dead body:"

"Yes, that'll be very likely if you don't get out of my way."

"Stop it Jon. You'll only regret this tomorrow."

"I'm going to help Robb."

"Benjen was right. You aren't ready for the Watch. You're too young, too naive."

"And you know better?"

"Atleast I don't run away in the middle of the night like some coward."

"I'm not a coward. And besides, I don't have a choice."

"You made your choice when you swore a vow to the Night's Watch. What will they say about you? `Jon Snow, the bastard that let his blood get the better of him.´"

"Bastards aren't traitors."

"I know that. It's still what they'll say though."

By now, the others had arrived too.

"Come back Jon. We'll make it look like you spent a night at Mole's Town, to celebrate."

"And how would that explain Al?" Alethia smiled at that. It was so like Jon to be a complete idiot one second and then to protect the ones he cared about in the next. She knew he'd come back with them.

"Everyone wants to drink some good ale once in a while." Alethia said

"Fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School has started again for me so I won't be updating as often but I'll try to update once a week. Until then, feel free to check out my other works.


	12. Longclaw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon gets Lonngclaw and has his first encounter with the Others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I'm writing this in my free lesson, what are my teachers going to do about it?

Of course, Jon's little excourse hadn't gone unnoticed, but Maester Aemon and the Lord Commander didn't say anything. Instead, Ser Alliser tried to make a fool out of Jon but by then, he was over his teasing. Alethia was already in the dining hall with Pyp, Grenn and Sam when Jon came down. Alethia was telling them about the two dead rangers that had been found behind the Wall. Maester Aemon had made her inspect them after all.

"There you are Jon. How do ya like your new sword?" Grenn and Al asked simultaneously. The weeks after swearing their vows, Grenn and Alethia had taken their reconciliation a step further and were now beginning to build an actual friendship. Like many other things, Alethia had learned, friendship was a rare commodity at Castle Black, even more so if you were a woman. 

By now, that was what Alethia considered herself. By westerosi standards, she was a maiden flowered after all and after she had turned fifteen she had decided she was by her own standards aswell. She worked hard every day, doing labour she would've considered disgusting iin New York, which now seemed like a lifetime ago. Al took a certain pride in her work and her weapon skills were, by now, considerably better.

"It's perfect." Jon marvelled and pulled it out of its scabbard. 

Around them, everyone gasped. "Valyrian Steel?! Holy shit Jon, did old Mormont give you his house heirloom?" Alethia exclaimed, completely forgetting that that was actually the whole story behind it.

"Yessir. He said I deserved it more than his son and he can't risk sending it to his sister in the Riverlands."

Everyone, including Alethia was fangirling- or well fanboying over the sword and even Sam seemed interested in it. 

Time skip: that night

Alethia was scared out of her mind as she lay awake in bed, thinking about the Undead that were about to go to the Lord Commanders chambers. She was tempted to just let Jon grill his hand but since he seemed dumber than in the show (maybe they were spending too much time together) she got up with a sigh and took her torch with her. She would make an amazing pyromancer was what she kept telling herself. A bit nervous, she sat down on the side of her bed and waited. She took the crashing of furniture as her queue and sprinted up the stairs.

When she got inside the room, the blast of cold was what surprised her. She looked down at herself and not only realized in horror that she had forgotten to put on some proper clothes but also that the Wights were radiating the cold. Jon was trying to hold them uo with one of the swords he had taken off of the wall, his lantern completely forgotten. When he saw Al, he stared at her dumbly, which was enough for the Wight to regain it's grip on him.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE AL???? GET OUT!" he screamed at her

"TAKE THE FUCKING LANTERN OR THE TORCH AND SET THOSE DEAD FUCKERS ON FIRE YOU DUMB FUCK!!" Al screamed back, equally exasperated as a hand was trailing in her direction. She set it on fire like a marshmallow and it stopped moving. Finally waking up from his, well whatever it had been, Jon threw the lantern at the wight. Together, they managed to finish off the last wight

Al plopped down on the floor as the mayhem aroundher started burning and smoothed out her shift. Jon tried to dutifully put out the flames when the Lord Commander burst into the room, also in his night clothes.

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT IS GOING ON?" Mormont hollered at them

"Why is everyone always screaming?" Al said to no one in particular while Mormont looked back and forth from her to Jon.

"Where you two fucking in my office?" he asked, a little quieter

"What? No, we were killing the Undead, that's why it's burning. I'm not into fireplay. How did you even come to that conclusion?" Al was exasperated and her wrist was burned. She'd have to put something onto that soon. Jon had gotten away unscathed of course.

"Isn't that kinda obvious?" Jon replied

Alethia then remembered that she was not only in her shift but also that her hair was in state of disarray that was well… incriminating to say the least. Jon on the other hand had a few more clothes on, but most of his laces were undone. It did really look like they were fucking in his office.

"Well we weren't." Alethia said, pointing to the now unmoving pieces of the corpses. 

"What about them?" Mormont asked

"They were moving, my Lord. As hard as it seems to believe, but they were and I was trying to kill them when Alethia came in to help. She was probably trying to help."

"Lord knows I'm the only light sleeper in the castle." Al put in, knowing it was partly true.

"Very well then. I must say it is hard to believe this lie. We will decide on you punishment tomorrow-" Mormont began when suddenly, Bowen Marsh burst in. 

"My Lord the corpses in the dungeons, they're-" he began but stopped when he saw Jon and Al

"Alive." Alethia finished darkly "The Others are back. Wake Maester Aemon, he knows more than we do." 

For some reason, Bowen Marsh lightly bowed his head and hurried away to find Maester Aemon.

"You were telling the truth." Mormont said, horrified

"Why is everyone always so surprised when I do?" Al retorted, before taking Jon by the arm to check him for unseen injuries. Then, she marched off. She had had enough of men for the day.


	13. First Ranging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia tries her best to stop her web of lies from breaking apart.

Jon and Alethia are silent as they watch the remains of their dead brothers burning at the stake.

"How did you know?" he asks her 

"How did I know what?" she replies

"How to stop them."

"I'm a good gambler."

"Stop lying to me."

"Why do you think are all the wildlings coming south? They're running Jon."

"You aren't answering my question."

"I read it in the library while copying books." Alethia lies. Smoothly, she thinks, but Jon notices.

"When will we finally be honest with each other, Al?"

Alethia looks at the flames that are dancing in front of her. "Never." she says, quietly. Jon stomps off and Alethia remains alone on the courtyard. She stays long after most men are gone and the fire is out.

"I want their remains buried somewhere far away from Castle Black." Commander Mormont tells her.

"They won't rise again. Ice will never prevail against fire." Alethia says

"Still. I think I speak for most men here when I tell you I am uncomfortable with these things here."

"They aren't things. They were brothers of the Night's Watch. Do you really think it was their choice? Darker things are happening beyond the Wall, my Lord. I fear Winter is coming. And this time, it will be a long, hard winter with an even longer night."

"You shouldn't always make prophecies with such dark omens, people will begin to think you a witch." the Lord Commander isn't looking at Alethia but she knows he also means himself.

"Where I'm from, magic doesn't exist. It scares me as much as it scares you, my Lord. I could never bring unluck onto a noble cause like this. What I have read about the Others, what history tells me is terrifying, truly. But it is the Night's Watch most important duty, to protect the world of men from the Others. I intend to keep my promise, even though I never really gave it."

They stand in the courtyard in silence. Even the Lord Commander's raven has nothing to say. No one else is in the courtyard, most of the men are in the dining hall, drinking away their worries and woes.

Finally, Alethia looks up. "I'll give them a proper burial. North of the Wall."

"What do you need?" Mormont asks gruffly

"A builder, to dig a hole for their ashes."

"I'll give you two, and a ranger to protect you all."

"Ghost will want to come too."

"He isn't mine to command."

"I never said so."

Grenn had agreed to come with Alethia and was digging a hole that was deep enough for the ashes. Alethia had asked for an urn but since that tradition was apparently reserved to Targaryens, the wooden box would have to do.

She put the box in the hole and Grenn closed it with earth. Alethia wasn't very religious but she had been baptized and besides, it felt wrong not to say anything. 

Alethia steps back from their burial site and clears her throat. "Here lie four men of the Night's Watch."

She sees the looks on the faces of the others. They are surprised, and very uncomfortable, wanting to get back to Castle Black as soon as possible, but Alethia ignores them.

"They fought with honor. They never broke their vows. Against their wills, they were made into mindless monsters. May this rest never be disturbed." she continues and then pauses

"Rest in peace." she finishes and turns around to leave. Ghost comes to her side. Together, they make their way back to Castle Black.

Nightshade, Milk of the Poppy, the Strangler. Alethia groans. She has been counting and labelling poisons and drugs for at least an hour now, and it is getting tiring. Maester Aemon wasn't in the infirmary but in the dining hall. Relieve floods through her as a knock on the door prevents a death of boredom.

"Come in."

Al is surprised when Sam comes in. Even though they are friends and work together quite closely in the library, Sam hates the infirmary. It smells of death and sickness, he says.

"Hello Sam. What do you need?"

"Maester Aemon and the other higher-ups want to speak to you."

"Higher-ups?"

"Oh. Did I use it in wrong context? I thought-"

"Oh no, I was just surprised you used it at all."

"Well, they are waiting for you in the Lord Commanders office."

"Thank you Sam."

"No problem."

Alethia enters the room and immediately wants to leave. There, right next to Mormont, sits Ser Alliser. Al sweeps the room and to her surprise, sees Qhorin Halfhand. She didn't expect him to be here.

"Sit." the Commander points to the chair in front of the table.

Alethia obliges and sits on the chair. When none of the men say anything, she begins to smooth out her skirts, glad to have some occupation.

"So you're our Lady Black." Qhorin Halfhand interrupts the silence.

"Aye, so it seems." Al replies

"The men at Seawatch are quite jealous that they aren't at this moldy castle. I see why."

"But we aren't here to compliment me are we?"

Qhorin doesn't answer Alethia's question. "Are you any good with a sword?"

"Not in Ser Alliser's eyes."

"She's decent enough." Alliser interrupts, to Alethia's surprise.

"What about with a bow and any other weapons?" Qhorin asks

"Hate to admit it, but she's the best recruit we've had in a while when it comes to bow and arrow-"

"Throwing knives are my specialty." Alethia interrupts. She feels incredibly annoyed by the fact that Ser Alliser won't let her answer any questions on her own.

"We are going on an expedition to find out what has the wildlings going south in such numbers." Mormont announces

"I take it I'm not coming with you."

"No. But you have the instincts of a rangers. You fight well, for a girl."

"I fight well for any gender." Al snaps

"You are going with Qhorin Halfhand, to find Benjen if he is still alive, and to stop the dead. You know something we don't. I want you to do what is neccesary, even if you won't tell us. Is that understood?" Alethia's mouth falls open in shock. She did not expect this, at all.

"Yes."

"Pack your things and say your goodbyes. Bring your healing supplies, you are coming mainly because of your healing skills. Tell everyone you are collecting some rare herb or whatever lie you want to tell them, but not the truth."

Alethia sits on her cot, still processing all the information when Maester Aemon walks in.

"You are leaving, Flower."

"Yes."

"I'm going to miss you, you know." he smiles his toothless grin. "You were like a daughter to me."

"Maybe granddaughter is more fitting."

"Indeed." he fumbles in a pocket of his robe and takes out a dagger.

"I want you to have this." he says

"It's- I can't accept."

"You have to. You will need it. Dragonbone and Dragonglass. My father gave it to me, in honor of my family's sigil. But I gave up that name when I swore my vows. You need it more than an old man ageing away in a moldy castle."

"How do you know?"

"About Dragonglass? Dragons are curious things, Flower and I hope I will get to know one before I die. I would like to meet her."

"Daenerys?"

"Yes. Perhaps if you succeed, I could meet her. A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing."

"Goodbye Maester."

"Goodbye Flower. Until we next meet."

"I'm leaving tomorrow, I have to get some herbs from north the Wall." Al announces at dinner.

"Frost Flower?" Sam asks

"Yep. That, and a few other things."

"We'll miss you." Grenn says

"Then it's only right we sing you a farewell song." Pyp adds and everyone around him groans in protest. Nonetheless, he begins to sing

That night is one of the best Alethia has ever had at Castle Black. They all get collectively drunk and at the end of the night, Alethia stumbles up to her room, giggling to herself.

She sits down on her cot and takes off her boots when Sam comes in. He, as the only person at the table, hadn't gotten drunk. He was apparently scared of throwing up

"Where are you going?" he asks

"Oi, get out, I'm tryna sleep. And I already told ya."

"Frost Flower doesn't even exist. Where. Are. You. Going?" Sam asks

"Told ya, getting herbs."

"If you don't tell me the truth-"

That clears Alethia's head a little. She had learned to hate threaths, especially at Castle Black.

"Then what? Huh? You'll go run to Maester Aemon and tell on me? You certainly won't kill me, you're too scared to do that." she snaps

"I'm sorry." Sam replies

"Don't be. I don't want to leave you behind on bad feelings."

She reconciles with Sam and assures him that it really only was a mistake. Even though Alethia is sure he doesn't believe her, she goes to sleep, content with the knowledge he isn't one to gossip.

The next day, Al wakes before the sun rises and walks down the stairs of the tower to meet Qhorin and the others. 

She is about to haul her pack on the back of her horse when a raven flies down from the rookery. Did Sam leave a cage unlocked? It is the gray raven, the one that is never used to send messages because of it's color. Today though, it has a message attached to one foot. Alethia unrolls the scroll and sees a familiar handwriting.

'I don't know where you are going but I want you to have this one. It's a special raven, just like you are my special sister. I hope it will keep you safe.'

She looks up to the window of the rookery and see Sam's pale face. Al raises a hand and waves him goodbye. Sam doesn't wave back though, he only looks at her, worry written all over his face.

The feeling of dread settles in Alethia as she leaves the Castle that has become her home.


	14. I do things for spite and the aesthetic, that's it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alethia makes a discovery and experiences things that mark a turning point in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: suicide, gore, swearing   
> Should I make Alethia a warg?

The next few days were far less uneventful than Alethia had anticipated. The gray raven, which she had named 'Morgan', proved far better company than most of the rangers, who kept to themselves.

Only Qhorin seemed willing to talk to her. Every night, they sparred and practiced with all the other weapons Alethia had learned to use. It was a way to kill time, mostly.

After a few weeks, their troupe finally made a discovery that could be called worth mentioning: a camp on the edge of a mountain. The camp was useful to everyone but Alethia. 

"Judgin' from the trails, tis was abandoned a few nights past it was." Tom said. Alethia didn't really know Tom, but he seemed nice enough.

"Search the camp, check if you find anything noteworthy." Qhorin commanded. 

They all spread out and began to search for hints, weapons or signs of an attack. Alethia didn't want to be useless, so she joined the search. Abruptly, all of the men around her left her alone and she had atleast a quarter of the camp to herself. 

Of course, she found nothing interesting. The blankets were moth-eaten, the bones were from game and the dagger that had been left behind was rusty. She still picked it up though, it was a weapon after all. 

Alethia was about to return to the others when she saw something that made her heart stop.

In one of the tall pine trees, the one that the dagger had been lying in front of, was an inscription.

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."

Alethia read it again, and again and again, but the inscription didn't change. It wasn't Westerosi, or Valyrian or Braavosi anything else. This was latin. Alethia knew it despite never haven taken the language in school or otherwise. And yet she knew what it meant.

"Don't let the bastards grind you down."

The Handmaid's Tale. She had read it a few weeks before coming to Westeros. Alethia's head was spinning. This meant that there was someone beyond the Wall who was from her world, or a world that was similar to hers. Perhaps it was even Offred herself, or the woman who had been Offred.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted by Qhorin's command. "We make camp here tonight, then we try to track them tomorrow."

Alethia ate her supper quietly, still thinking about the inscription. She had decided to keep the dagger, in case she needed it as proof and as of yet, she kept the inscription to herself aswell. It was at the far end of the camp and no one except her had seen it.

That night, when she was sparring with Qhorin, her thoughts were still on the inscription. Qhorin noticed.

"Yer not concentrating. Get yerself together."

Alethia nodded and he attacked again. And landed a hit, again.

"Lass, what's on your mind. You in love or sum? Is it that pretty boy?" he prodded again

"No, but we shouldn't discuss it here."

Alethia simply walked to the inscription, hoping Qhorin would follow her.

"This is what's on my mind." she pointed to the inscription at the base of the tree.

"Ya know I can't read, right?" Qhorin replied, annoyed

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum." Alethia read aloud

"So this is what's got you so distracted? Some wildlin' speak?"

"That's the point- it's not any wildling language- it's Latin."

"And?" 

"It's where I'm from." Alethia replied. She knew that basically no one in this ranging believed her story of origin, she even thought some of them were oblivious to it, but Qhorin definetly knew. If he believed it was a whole other matter.

"You're sayin' there's someone like you?"

"Not only that, someone who knows the story I read, behind the Wall." Alethia finished

"We'll keep an eye out." Qhorin promised. For him, this matter was settled

That night, Al slept uneasily. She dreamt of her home, her parents and Morgan but that didn't last long. Soon her dreams turned dark. She was back in the Lord Commander's rooms, fighting the Others with Jon. She had just set them on fire and thought herself saved, then, Jon turned to face her. His eyes were blue. She tried to run but instead, Alethia fell.

Then, she was standing in the camp. Around her were pieces of bodies. She panicked and began to run again, but she kept stumbling over a foot or an arm. She didn't even know from what she was running. Once Al realised that, she looked over her shoulder.

And that was when she saw them.

They were dead quiet and calmly walked towards her. She saw the Night King, more terrible than any of them. A tranquility flowed through Alethia as she faced him, all her fears forgotten in curiosity.

He reached out with his hand, to touch her face. The Night King was only mere millimeters away from her face when, out of seemingly nowhere, Morgan swooped down and threw her small body against his hand.

A light filled everything.

A searing pain ran through Alethia's face as Qhorin slapped her.

"Get yourself together, lass, it was only a nightmare." he said, the worry was apparent in his eyes though.

"Tha' was no nightmare." Tom muttered "She wouldn't wake up, it was sum' darker, tha' it was."

"Where's Morgan?" Al asked, panicking 

"Tha' bird flew away." Tom replied "Went in tha' direction of the Fist of the First Men it did."

"We need to leave, NOW." Alethia said

"What? What are ye talkin about, whatever you dreamed was just that, a nightmare." Qhorin argued

"Morgan never flies away from camp, not even to hunt. Why would she leave now?"

"Tha' girls got a point." Tom said "I'm wakin' the others, we're leaving."

"They're already awake, her tantrum woke them." Qhorin pointed at Alethia accusingly. "And b'sides, I'm still in charge." he added

"Shut up." Alethia said, already beginning to pack her things

"Excuse you." Qhorin looke dlike he was about to slap her again

"No, listen."

"There ain't no sound." Tom said, relieved

"Exactly. I read about that in the library." Alethia lied "Before the Others come, it becomes dead quiet. Why would all the sounds of the forest suddenly quiet down for no reason?"

"It's nothing. We stay here." Qhorin said

"Better safe than sorry." Alethia argued

"Fine. Don't ever insult me again, or I will make you regret it."

"Agreed."

"Gather your things, we're leaving." Qhorin called

They had barely begun to gather up their things, when one of the men fell over dead. His head had been pierced by a spear.

"RUN!" Tom shouted, ignoring Qhorin. He barely made it five steps. Some of the men put up a fight. Alethia on the other hand, had no problem with running away.

Well, she tried.

"They're closing in on us!" she shouted

"Very helpful!" Someone screamed back, before dying. (iconic tbh)

"Use the fire!" Qhorin commanded, but for most of them, it was hopeless.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Alethia repeated it over and over in her mind, it was stupid, she knew that, but it made her feel strong.

She had survived coming to Westeros, she had made a life in Winterfell, slapped the King and had come to the Wall, where she had earned respect and a life. This was her first ranging. She'd be dammed if some rip-off zombies killed her.

And then, there was one of them in front of her. She ripped the dagger Maester Aemon had given her from her belt and got into a fighting stance. 

"I FUCKING HATE MY LIFE!" she screamed before bodyslamming the Other like she had bodyslammed the cop a few months prior during the BLM-protests.

Only when it was choking her on the ground, she realised how stupid that had been.

"I imagined this situation very differently." she choked out, before miraculously managing to kill it.

"How did you do that?" Qhorin shouted from somewhere

"I don't know! Spite?!" Alethia guessed. She was proud of herself, but other than that, the situation was not looking good.

They had driven them to the edge of the mountain. Apart from Alethia, only Qhorin and two other men from their group of nine were left.

And then, the Night King walked past the rest, raising his arms.

"Fuck this." Alethia muttered, before throwing her pack off of the mountain peak. Qhorin only looked at her, obviously confused, before she followed suit.

The fall was shorter than Alethia had expected, but the impact still took her breath away.

Soon after, Qhorin and the two other men jumped aswell.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" he screamed at her

"IT OBVIOUSLY WORKED SO I DON'T REALLY SEE THE ISSUE HERE." Al shouted back

"YOU ARE THE STUPIDEST AND YET SMARTEST PERSON I KNOW." he continued

"YES, THAT IS BASICALLY THE ESSENCE OF MY BEING."

"I kinda hate you." he sighed

"I kinda hate me too." Alethia replied

They were interrupted by groans of pain. Luckily, they weren't their own.

One of the men, his name was- Alethia had forgotten his name- had died in the fall, but the other was still alive, though very much not healthy.

He had broken his leg, and the bone was poking through.

"Oh shit."

"Can ya do sum' about it, Lady Black?" he was one of the older rangers, Alethia remembered. His name was Arryk, but everyone called him Ryk to distinguish him from another Arryk, who had been even older.

"I'll try my best. I know how to fix it in theory, but I don't have all the materials." Alethia replied searching for her pack in the snow.

She found it, and gathered up the Milk of the Poppy.

"Get some sticks." she told Qhorin "Make sure they're straight." 'Unlike me.' she added in her thoughts

For once, Qhorin did not argue.

Alethia fixed up Ryk's leg as best as she could and Qhorin fashioned him a crutch.

They kept walking through the night, not daring to look back. Alethia was still shaking from before. After they realised, they couldn't make a fire, much less gather enough material for a pyre, Qhorin and Alethia had chopped the other ranger up as best as they could, trying to ensure that he wouldn't be able to do any harm.

It was too much. After walking for another day, night fell again and Alethia threw up as soon as Qhorin announced they were setting camp. She was near tears, but held them back. She would not cry.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. It had become a prayer of sorts now. All this time, she had found things like this hard to understand in books or movies, but now, she knew. How could she not?

They all went to sleep, too exhausted to set up a watch.

The next morning, Alethia awoke to the sound of wings flapping in the wind. She opened her eyes, glad to at least have Morgan bacl. 

"Hello Morgan."

"Alethia." the raven squawked in return "Alethia" she repeated

Alethia smiled and got up. She went over to Ryk and saw him sitting against a rock.

"Mornin'" he said, smiling a toothless grin

"Morning Ryk. How did you sleep?" 

"Like a king. Thanks to you."

"That's great."

"Is Qhorin awake yet?" he asked

"No?" Alethia replied cautiously

"Well then, Lady Black, I must ask a favor of you."

"Oh? Go on then."

"Will you kiss me on the cheek? My daughter used to kiss me on the cheek. Just a peck. She died when she was five. That was a terrible winter."

Alethia was surprised when she saw the tears in his eyes. She hadn't known about his daughter. She hadn't known anything about him really. She felt sorry for him and so, she leaned down to kiss him on the cheek.

"Thank you, lass. I can rest now." old Ryk said

Alethia frowned at that and was about to ask him what he meant, when Ryk pulled out his own dagger. Then she realised. She jumped at him, trying to wrestle the dagger out of his hand, but Ryk was stronger than her and had nothing to lose.

He pushed her off, gently but still firm and smiled one last time. 

"Make it count." he whispered, before cutting his own throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Offred: Protagonist in the Handmaids Tale  
> I recommend the Handmaid's Tale to everyone reading this, it's an amazing book.


	15. Wildlings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al and Qhorin get into a bit of trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood, violence, mentions of sexual assault/violence

Alethia stared at the man in the snow in terror. The snow around Ryk was beginning to turn red already, steaming upon impact with his blood.

"Where's Ryk, girl?" Qhorin asked

Alethia pointed at him, her mind numb from the shock of his suicide. She continued to stare, she couldn't help it, she wanted to will the corpse back alive again, but Ryk wouldn't move.

She was shaken out of her trance by Qhorin, who was shaking her by her shoulders.

"I asked you a question lass."

"What do you want?" Al whispered

"What happened?"

"He-. I don't know he-" Alethia was stumbling over her own words.

Finally, she managed a whole sentences. "He sacrificed himself for us." She looked at Qhorin.

There was understanding in his eyes, as if he knew what Alethia was going through at this moment.

"I'm sorry ye had to see that Lady Black." he awkwardly patted her on the back. Was this his attempt at comforting her?, Alethia wondered. Out of impulse, she hugged the old ranger and was surprised when he hugged her back.

Together, they built his funeral pyre. Qhorin held a speech and Alethia set the pyre aflame. Morgan was watching from the packs, seemingly paying her respects as well.

"We should leave." Qhorin said. Alethia nodded in agreement.

The next days were all the same: Qhorin and Alethia held watch as best as they could, packed their things and walked in silence. They only spoke when it was absolutely neccessary. Alethia could see the grief Qhorin was feeling for his fallen comrade, but she herself felt like she was getting ripped apart by guilt.

At night, Alethia would sit and think of Ryk and all the other rangers that had fallen. She had never even made an effort to talk to them or learn their names, she hadn't given a singular fuck about their stories and treated them all like dirt.

Did coming from another world really make her better than the rest of them? The answer was no, and Alethia knew it had always been that way. Only she had behaved like a second Cersei.

She'd critized Jon in the show for thinking he was better than the rest of the men of the Watch, but now she had done the exact same thing.

Why did it have to be Ryk? She had asked Qhorin why the man had come to the Watch. Qhorin had explained to her that he had been caught stealing from a Lord. It was supposed to be food for his dying wife, his daughter had already been dead for months then.

The guilt was gnawing at Alethia. If it weren't for Ryk's last request, she was sure that she'd jumped off of some glacier or another a few nights ago.

Tonight she was on watch again. Her thoughts were louder than the landscape around her and Morgan wasn't perched on her shoulder as usual. 

Since the attack of the Wights, Morgan had changed. She left camp more often but always made a point to return to Alethia at some time or another. And Alethia felt her connection with Morgan growing as well. 

It wasn't that of a warg, but she could sense if Morgan was near and the raven often appeared in her dreams. Al wasn't sure what those dreams meant, but they deeply unsettled her. The first had warned her about the Wights, after all.

She kept those dreams and her worries to herself, just as Qhorin did with his own. It was better that way, Alethia told herself.

Alethia was ripped from her thoughts by a noise in the nearby bushes. When she didn't see anything, she decided it was probably a rabbit.

Her stomach growled at the thought. Had someone told her in New York that she would one day want to skin, cook and eat a rabbit in the most godforsaken place in Westeros, she would've declared them crazy.

Not wanting to scare away the potential game, she snuck over to wake Qhorin and informed him about her hopes.

"Could be a wildlin' aswell." he muttered

"What do we do?"

"I wouldn't risk it." he said "We leave this place immediately."

"But-" Alethia protested

"I've had enough of the cryin'. I'm hungry too but we ain't riskin' it."

Qhorin got his pack and Alethia followed suit. Soon, they were on their way. They had added a bit of fodder to the tiny fire they kept going at night, hoping it would draw attention away from them.

They barely made it a hundred meters.

"Wha' do we have here. The Halfhand and his whore. Didn't know the crows have whores now." Rattleshirt announced after having his group of wildlings surround them.

"And what do we have there? A guy who's to ugly to show his face in public." Alethia snapped back. Having to surrender to a group of wildlings had wounded her pride, but it brought back some of her own self. Which wasn't good in this case.

Her hand shot up and caught Rattleshirt's who had tried to slap her. "I'm not a whore."

He ignored her. "Tie them up. We wouldn't want to separate the crow from his lover."

They were all laughing at her expense, and Alethia hated every second of it. She was practically fuming, so much so that she almost didn't see her.

There, in the middle of all the other wildlings, stood Ygritte.  
.   
Alethia stared at her and for some reason felt jealous. She didn't know why and did her best to ignore the feeling.

Soon, they were on the move again. Alethia did her best to listen to what the wildlings were talking about. Most of the time, it was shittalking about her.

"You think she'll let me fuck her?"

"Look at the crow. Tha's one ugly fucker. She'll beg for it soon enough."

And then she heard something interesting.

"Ygritte, Eren, you two leave. I heard some other crows were runnin' around nearby. Find them."

Alethia immediately remembered who those crows where. Well, one of them. None of the men had been of any importance in the show, except for Jon of course.

And in her heart, Alethia felt hope.

That feeling quickly vanished when she woke up the next morning. She felt incredibly cold, and when she looked over her shoulder, she knew why. Qhorin was gone.

Al guessed that he had been killed, but the wildlings quickly told her otherwise.

"Did yer lover abandone you, whore? Rattleshirt asked her

"Which lover?" Al asked back

"The one that-" another wilding began

"I know who you mean, idiot. Point is, he isn't my lover so I won't call him that."

"Wha's a dornish whore doin' North of the Wall." another wildling asked. By his trivial knowledge of Westeros, Al guessed he was a deserter

"I don't answer to traitors." she replied and spat at him. Since when did the Night's Watch mean so much to her? Maybe since she was really fucking scared of the people who had captured her.

Rattleshirt punched her straight in the face, and this time Alethia couldn't do anything. Her hands were bound afterall.

"Well, whore, you might know something. Shut up and we'll leave you alone."

Al took that offer up very quickly. She was just praying that Jon and Qhorin would be at the right time and place for the plot.


	16. You're not a kneeler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al reveals her origins to a few more people

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy everyone is enjoying the story, it really makes my day to see your comments!

A few days later, Jon and Qhorin were escorted back to the wildling camp. Alethia sighed in relieve and resignation. She had hoped that this would go another way of course, maybe where she was in less rapey surroundings, but at this point, who was she to make demands.

"Long time no see, asshole." Al says as she makes eyecontact with Jon, who ignores her

"Long time no see traitor." he replies

Alethia is fuming but she knows better than to not keep her mouth shut. That is, until Jon is dumped next to her. She takes her chance and elbows him in the side, hard.

"Ow. Fuck, what was that for?" he whispers

"For calling me a traitor. I didn't betray the Watch. I've been through shit you can't even imagine and now you want to tell me that I'm a bloody traitor?" Al whispers back

"That's what you are. You didn't even try to escape to warn the other rangers or save your little flower-picking expedition, Qhorin on the other hand at least tried."

"Maybe it's because this was my first fucking ranging and I have no survival skills. I'm trying my best and this is not some easy ranging. Do you really think that they would've sent Qhorin fucking Halfhand to pick flowers?"

"You are a traitor and have no idea what hard is." Jon replies

That is the moment that all the emotions and trauma Al repressed in the last few weeks come forward. In this moment, she wants to set hell on Jon and since she can't do that, she loses her composure, which she had so carefully kept.

"YOU WORTHLESS FUCKING BASTARD!," she screams as she lunges forward and begins kicking him as best as she can "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH IN THE LAST WEEKS AND I SWEAR TO YOU, YOU WILL REGRET THIS ONE DAY-"

Al struggles against the Wildling who picks her up and tries to carry her away from Jon.

"LET ME GO." she screams as he laughs at her and binds her to a tree across the camp. She manages to free herself and charge straight at Jon. She bodyslams him, much like the Other before she is pulled off again and this time securely bound to a tall pine tree.

The Wildlings tease her relentlessly.

"Is this your other lover?"

"What fight did you get into this time, whore?"

"Mad that he prefers boys?"

The teasing falls on deaf ears, the accusations that her quest was for nothing, however, eat away at Alethia and fuel her rage.

The last words of Ryk echo in her head: "Make it count."

It is only when the band has settled down for the night that she allows herself to cry. It isn't the quiet, pretty crying in movies, and it certainly isn't what Sansa looked like in King's Landing. 

Tears and snot run down her face and she barely manages to keep herself quiet. Sobs wreck Alethias body as she feels like the ground beneath her is pulled away once more. Nothing, truly nothing has ever felt this painful. No bruise, no wound and no heartbreak. The realization settles in as the light rises again on the horizon: This won't have a happy ending. She obviously hadn't been paying attention. And now she knows what it is like to be broken, truly.

The next morning, Ygritte yanks her up by her bindings and looks at her with a mixture of hatred and, respect? She hands her a waterskin and undoes Alethias bindings.

"For yer eyes." is all Ygritte says

"You saw me." it isn't a question, but Ygritte answers nonetheless

"Was on watch." Alethia nods in thanks and returns the waterskin

She spends the day walking next to Qhorin and Jon. With Qhorin, she exchanges a few words, but it takes all her willpower to not lunge at Jon again.

Suddenly, the group comes to a standstill. Al sees the evil smirk of a Wildling which she has begun to call line-leader, fitting the way he always walks at the front with Rattleshirt. It infuriated him. What was that one quote from one of the later seasons?

"It's the only joy I can find in all this misery."

Quite fitting.

"Prove your loyalty, girl." the man says

"What?"

"If ye want to survive, you'll have to become one of us. We want to see what you're worth, for a southern girl. The boy has obviously betrayed the Watch already," he said, having jumped to his own conclusions "Seeing how you reacted yesterday. Now you. Kill the Halfhand. Or die tryin'"

Al and Qhorin look at each other. She is about to protest when he nods.

"I'll do it. Finally a chance to get away from this stupid order." the lie is terribly told, but they believe her. While Alethias bounds are unfastened, she sees Qhorin whisper into Jon's ear.

A sword is handed to her and she gets into fighting stance.

The Wildlings holler insults at Alethia and try to distract her but their words can't hurt her. They are her armour now.

Qhorin swings at her, and she blocks. She stays defensive as long as she can but then gradually picks up pace. Alethia knows she's one of the best fighters at Castle Black and this gives her the confidence she needs. Qhorin has added his own "taunts" to the mix, but all she hears is white noise.

Nothing matters, only this.

She swings at him, again and again until she finally manages to land a blow. Al slices through the back of Qhorins knees and then takes of both of his hands in one swing. 

A long time ago, she would've marvelled at the badass girl warrior staying true to her purpose, but now she could feel the adrenaline already leaving her body.

Alethia pulled Qhorin up by his cloak. He spits in her face. "Finish it traitor." he manages

Al knows that no one but Qhorin can see the tears in her eyes. She turns to face him. "I'm so sorry." she whispers

"For the Watch." he whispers

"For the Watch." she quietly replies and stabs him in the guts.

Alethia had dissociated so much that she didn't realize where she was. Most of the group were gone and she was in a tent. Together with Jon and Rattleshirt. She sees Tormund walk in and snorts as Jon kneels to "the King-beyond-the-Wall"

"Aren't you gonna kneel girl?" Tormund asks

"It's not like I'm about to suck your cock, so I'll pass." she replies, using her sass as protection

Alethia stares at Tormund defiantly and is preparing herself for whatever will come next, but instead, Tormund throws his head back and roars in laughter as Jon looks at her in despair.

"I like you," he says after a while "Unlike the kneeler there you got some backbone. I think I'd steal you if I didn't already have a wife."

"You could've tried." Alethia sassed back

Tormund laughs again. "Who is she?" he asks Rattleshirt

"Some dornish whore. Joined the Watch as a bedwarmer."

This was it, Alethia realized. Her chance to quote Star Wars.

"Incredible. Everything you just said was wrong."

"So who are you then? You're not a kneeler, that's clear as ice." Tormund asks her

"If you tell Mister Alternative over there to take his ass out of this tent I might just tell you."

After Rattleshirt is gone, Al tells Tormund her story. There's no point in lying, and if anyone knows someone else from another world who lives beyond the Wall, it's Tormund.

"Sounds like a lie." Tormund says

"Ask him." Alethia points to Jon

"Why should he tell me the truth?"

"Because the stick named 'honor' is so far up his arse that it's almost coming out of his throat."

Tormund laughs again and after asking Jon, turns to you.

"I was told that you killed the Halfhand. I want you to come with us. You seem quite keen on it."

"Aye. Where I'm from, woman have more freedom." Truth. "And besides, I hate everyone in the Watch." Lie

"Including him?" Tormund gestures at Jon

"Naw. He's a traitor with me"

"Good. The two of you are coming beyond the Wall with us."

Soon, Mance Rayder is introduced and while Jon sulks, Alethia gests with the Wildlings and drink some of the stolen ale.

"So then there was this bear." Tormund begins. Alethia groans. She isn't sure if he's trying to impress her or if it's just Tormund.

"Yes and you fucked it." Alethia said. "We all know, get over it. We appreciate you and your extravagantly large cock."

"You've fucked him?" an irrelevant side character asks

"No, it's a metaphor."

"What's that?" everyone asks (except Jon, that prick)

"Try and figure it out."


	17. Let's disappoint each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uhh? Stuff happens I guess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like my writing is really good in this. No TW, only a creep at the end

Al was not thrilled when Jon settled down next to her for the night. He had, after all, ignored her for most of the evening and hadn't even attempted to apologize. 

A few weeks ago, she would've moved her sleeping place or snapped at him but now Alethia kept her mouth shut and tried to go back to sleep, she didn't want to make any wasted efforts on someone she had given up on.

Something prodded her back and Alethia jerked back to full attention, dagger in hand. She whirled around and kept her dagger ready for any unseen attackers, ready to stand her ground.

"It's just me." Jon whispered

Al careened as the tension left her body and tried to steady herself on the ground, almost faceplanting on the way.

"What do you want?" she asked

"I wanted to apologize." 

"Make it quick." Alethia turned around again and got ready to go to sleep.

"No." Jon grasped her shoulder. Alethia immediately brought the dagger at his throat, hoping that her shaking hands wouldn't give away her panic.

"I want you to look at me."

"Oh." 

"You can take the dagger away." 

"Right." Al lowered her dagger but didn't put it away just yet.

"Alethia, I wanted to apologize to you. What I did was not only extremely rude on my part but also very insensitive to your mission and experiences. I should have never lashed out like this. Please accept my apology."

"I accept." Alethia sighed. It didn't make sense to fight, it would only endanger their missions.

"Wait what?" Jon asked perplexed

"Why shouldn't I accept? It is only logical and we need to stick together. Didn't Eddard always say that? The lone wolf dies but the pack survives."

"I think he meant his children."

"You are his son." Al argued

"You've changed Al."

"You think?"

"Yes. The old Alethia wasn't this quick to forgive, she wasn't this calculating and she wasn't this-" he paused. "Tired is the right word I believe. What happened to you?"

"You don't want to know Jon. Some things are better left untold."

Jon opened his mouth to say something but decided not to and after Alethia had lain back down, she could hear him do the same soon after.

Al couldn't sleep. It wasn't like she had had any nightmares, she couldn't fall asleep in the first place because her mind was racing.

Did Jon think she was cold and detached? Was she becoming a bad person? Where was Morgan? She hadn't seen the raven since her capture.

The early morning hours had barely begun when Alethia gave up on the notion of sleep and packed her things together, leaving them in a neat pile next to the softly snoring Jon.

Freshly fallen snow crunched under her boots as she walked through the silent camp, nodding to the passing wildlings. She had already made two rounds around the camp when she finally walked to a frozen stream.

The world looked so peaceful like this, everything covered in white snow, seemingly innocent, but Alethias training told her otherwise.

There were birds hunting and squirrels scavenging for food and off in the distance, she could see a pack of wolves, probably belonging to a warg.

She felt Morgan's claws dig into her cloak as the bird perched herself on her shoulder. Almost at the same time, it stopped snowing.

Al checked her pockets and stopped in surprise when her fingers brushed over a few leftover kernels of corn. She took them into her hand and waited for Morgan to sit on her arm.

"Man, man." Morgan squawked in warning, just as Alethia had attempted to train her. Al had taken the attempts as futile, but she had obviously underestimated her bird.

Al turned around and saw Mance Rayder walking up to her. Subconsciously, she grabbed her dagger under her cloak. 

"That's a pretty bird you've got there."

"Thank you."

"Why are you up so early? Isn't your group supposed to leave in the morning?"

"Can't I take a walk?"

"Of course. But there is obviously something that is bothering you."

"I wouldn't tell you."

Mance laughed. "I didn't expect you to. Jon told me about your origins and from what Tormund could piece together, you've been through a lot of shit lately." 

"You could say that." Al replied

"You have admirable skills, for a fighter."

Alethia narrowed her eyes at Mance.

"How long did those wildlings spy on the rangers until they captured Qhorin and me?"

"No worries, my Lady." Mance mocked

In the blink of an eye, her dagger was at the kings throat.

"Careful now. I will not be mocked for my struggles."

Despite the imminent danger her weapon posed, Mance smirked at her. "They'd kill you if you killed me. And they'd kill you slowly too."

"They would never know it was me. And besides, at this point, I don't know if I care."

"You can't play this card with me."

"I can. I have nothing to lose, only a few promises to break."

"They say you are a traitor, but now I know better." Mance said

Alethia lowered her dagger and turned her attention back to Morgan.

"Whatever you say."

"What that bird and you have is special." Mance changed the subject

"How so?"

"The forest witch told me. You have a very special bond."

"A witch? Why is she a witch?"

"You want to know if she is magical in the way you are." he stated

"Yes."

"The one you seek is somewhere behind the Wall. The one you loved is far away in the south, in a city most wildlings don't know exist."

"Morgan." Alethia breathed

"Yes. That is what the witch said at least."

"I don't put my trust in prophecies and ominous warnings, not anymore." Al said

"Maybe you should." Mance called after her, but Alethia was already walking away.

"There's my favorite southern girl." Tormund boomed, swaggering towards Alethia and Jon

"I'm still not from the South, you know."

"So, you got all those healing supplies?"

"Yes."

"Good. I want you to go to Orell. He's a warg." Tormund stated, as if that stated everything Al needed to know.

They walked in silence. Alethia could feel Orell's eyes raking over her, even in her absurd wildling clothes. Just when she felt like she wouldn't be able to take it any longer, he broke the silence.

"You're awfully pretty for a she-crow." he said

"You say that as if there are countless women in the Night's Watch."

He ignored her and rambled on. "They all think you're a warg. You aren't. Pretty southern girls aren't wargs. I think-"

"You know what I think?" Alethia interrupted him "I think that you are a prejudiced imbecile."

He looked at her, mouth agape. Alethia has always hated stupid people, but this one was getting on her nerves more than the usual idiot.

"Need it mansplained? I think you're a stupid asshole who lets his expectations get the better of him."

Now, Orell looked at her even more confused. Alethia threw up her hands in defeat and walked away.

"If you think this idiot will make me loyal to you, you're wrong Tormund. He's so incredibly stupid that he's more like to make me betray you." she shouted in his general direction

His laughter echoed in her ears as Alethia thought about everything Orell had done and said against Jon in the show. He really deserved the reputation of a stupid creep.


End file.
